Despite having no plans to start FP1 during the 2022 season, Nick de Vries has already fitted the AlphaTauri seats at the Faenza plant in Italy.
Ideally, he would like to use his youth share to gain FP1 experience before debuting next season as Yuki Tsunoda’s teammate, but team principal Franz Tost ruled him out at Suzuka. .
seat adaptation time for @nyckdevries 👌 welcome to Faenza! 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/pCHGSJNQmH
– AlphaTauri team (@ AlphaTauriF1) October 14, 2022
“I don’t think so, as he is still under contract with another team (Mercedes). We hope to see him at the youth tests in Abu Dhabi,” explained Tost.
“There are currently no plans to race Nick in FP1 and I think Liam Lawson will race in FP1 in the United States or Mexico.”
So while seat fitting is believed to be in anticipation of post-season testing at the Yas Marina circuit, Dutch reports suggest that De Vries may be returning to FP1 this season.
However, this is not about AlphaTauri, but about Mercedes, whose contract is still valid. He is reportedly expected to drive the W13 again in FP1 at the Mexican Grand Prix, replacing George Russell.
Silver Arrow has not yet exhausted his rookie seat, which must be used at least twice during the season, and will have to give the youngster the chance to race one of the free practice weekends after the United States Grand Prix.
Mercedes currently has six junior drivers, including Frédéric Vesti, who is competing in the FIA-F2 championship, but it seems none of them are worthy of racing in FP1.
When asked why he had chosen De Vries to replace Pierre Gasly, Tost simply said: “Because he is fast”.
“I think that in 2010 and 2011 he won the European and the Karting World Championship and he was successful with that”.
“He has won in all the categories in which he competed, Formula Renault, GP3, Formula 2 and the Formula E World Championship.
Tost also acknowledged that his performance in the Italian Grand Prix, where he scored in his debut race, “played an important role” in the contract signing process, but did not seek the opinion of Max Verstappen, who is from the same country as explained by De Vries.
“He had a great race and made no mistakes, so it was an easy decision to make.”
Sure, De Vries is “fast”, but that’s not the only factor that makes him attractive to AlphaTauri.
In addition to being a Formula E champion, this year he drove the latest generation F1 cars for three teams: Aston Martin, Mercedes and Williams, and has extensive simulator experience.
