Nyck de Vries

Points 51 Position 51 Date of Birth February / 06 / 1995
Place of Birth Uitwellingerga Team AlphaTauri Car Number 77

Profile

Hendrik Johannes Nicasius de Vries, or Nyck de Vries for short, is a Dutch racing driver taking part in his first full Formula 1 season in 2023, having signed for AlphaTauri.

De Vries, who was born in the village of Uitwellingerga in the Netherlands on February 6 1995,  had previously been Mercedes' reserve driver while competing in other series, having been a serial winner in the junior categories leading up to Formula 1.

Aged 27 and without having made his debut however, it looked as though his Formula 1 chance may never come, but a substitute appearance at Monza for the unwell Alex Albon at Williams saw De Vries get into the points in a backmarking car, prompting a scramble for his signature for 2023.

A previous graduate of McLaren's young driver programme, the Dutchman has raced and succeeded in several different racing series, becoming Formula E's first ever FIA-recognised World Champion in the 2020-21 season.

With lengthy experience through karting, single seaters and endurance racing, De Vries arrives in Formula 1 with plenty of different cockpits behind him, and has already raced against many of the current grid in previous series.

He was also rather unique in that he did not have a manager until the end of 2022, previously representing himself on driving and commercial matters as he made his way around the world of motorsport.

Having taken a rather roundabout route to make it to Formula 1, De Vries arrives on the grid for 2023 having finally earned his chance at the big time after a successful junior career.

Career

De Vries wore team kit for no less than six of the 10 teams on the grid at one time or another in 2022, be it in a race, commercial or testing capacity. His official role as Mercedes reserve also extended to its customer teams, making him a reserve for McLaren, Williams and Aston Martin where needed.

After first taking part for Mercedes in the young driver test at the end of 2020, De Vries made his free practice debut for Aston Martin in Spain in 2022, in place of Sebastian Vettel.

This would not be his last involvement of the year however, as Alex Albon fell ill at the Italian Grand Prix in September, giving De Vries an unlikely chance to impress at Williams, having taken part in practice again for Aston Martin on Friday. He duly out-qualified regular race driver Nicholas Latifi and put in a sterling drive to take ninth place and two points on his debut, having come in at very short notice. This did not go unnoticed by fans either, who voted him the official Driver of the Day.

This led to clamour for his signature for 2023, and having been one of the drivers to complete a private test for Alpine while they searched for a replacement for Fernando Alonso, it would be AlphaTauri which would eventually sign him, after Pierre Gasly left to join the French outfit.

De Vries had two further FP1 outings in 2022 with Mercedes, before taking part in post-season testing with new team AlphaTauri in Abu Dhabi in November that year, before taking on a full-time drive.

History

Nyck de Vries had an extremely successful career prior to Formula 1, winning two World Karting titles in 2010 and 2011 before making the step up to single seaters.

Three seasons in Formula Renault Eurocup followed and he took the title at his final attempt in 2014, before stepping up to Formula Renault 3.5 for a single year, finishing third in the championship and stepping onto the Formula 1 support schedule in GP3.

Two race wins in GP3 followed on his way to sixth place in 2016, before making the step up to what would be the first of three seasons in Formula 2. He finished seventh and fourth in his first two seasons in the series before taking the title in 2019, beating Nicholas Latifi to the title in a field which also contained future Formula 1 drivers Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.

A race seat in Formula 1 did not follow for the Dutchman, but he took on reserve duties at Mercedes and went off to drive in their Formula E team, alongside LMP2 racing in the World Endurance Championship.

The Formula E World title followed in 2020-21, and he combined test duties for Mercedes and their customer teams in Formula 1 with his own racing schedule in 2022 before being awarded a full-time drive in 2023.

Networth

De Vries' current net worth is listed via multiple reports to sit between $1m - $5m ahead of the 2023 season, and is reportedly set to earn a salary of around $2m at AlphaTauri as part of his deal for the 2023 season.

With karting and his feeder series career needing to be largely self or sponsor-funded, it is unlikely that he earned much money through racing via a salary until he signed his reserve driver deal with Mercedes in 2020, racing in Formula E and in the World Endurance Championship, through which he earned a reported $850,000 per year.

De Vries does not have any personal sponsors or commercial partners listed on his official website, though he confirmed ahead of 2023 that he would be launching his own personal line of merchandise.

Commercial sponsorships of De Vries had been mostly in line with his previous deal at Mercedes, and details of any personal partnerships through AlphaTauri are not yet known.

Family

De Vries grew up racing a lot in Italy through its rich karting heritage, and his family even decided to move to Italy when he started karting at an international level as a result - with father Hendrik, mother Naomi Hesseling and sister Seychelle de Vries.

He did not have the same financial resources as some of his fellow racers however, and he revealed that his father sacrificed a lot to be able to help fund his junior racing career.

"I got into motorsport through my family," he said in a Q&A with AlphaTauri. "My father used to own car dealerships and also raced a little bit himself. Cars have always been part of my family’s DNA, with my great grandfather originally starting the dealerships and my father eventually ended up running them.

"My father sold everything though, to be able to put all his time and effort into me and my racing career, so as much as it was my dream and goal to make it in motorsport, it was also his."

De Vries has also got a long-term girlfriend in Eva Bruggenwirth, who works in social media and content creation. Their relationship is mostly private, though the first public picture the couple shared together on social media came back in early 2020.

News