Nyck De Vries: 2023’s “Rookie” of the Year

Let’s Jump In, Who is Nyck?

Hendrik Johannes Nicasius "Nyck" De Vries is a Dutch racing driver. He was born and raised in Uitwellingerga, Netherlands but also identifies with his Indonesian roots from his grandfather. 

He’s known to be incredibly close to his family. He’s particularly close to his sister, Seychelle De Vries, who is only a year younger. Fun fact: she was actually the first De Vries to enter the Mercedes / Williams extended family, dating George Russell from 2017-2019! 

Back to Nyck, he’s actually 27, so he’s on the older side of the current rockstar generation that’s coming up in F1 – Max, George, Charles, Lando. Thus, he’s a known entity with a lot of friends up and down the paddock. 

I cannot with the Dutch cuteness…before he was a killer, Verstappen and NDV

He’s also still humble, despite being a champion many times over. He won the Karting World Championships back in 2010 and 2011. He signed with McLaren’s junior program and moved through F3 and F2 slowly until winning F2 in 2019 and beating future Williams driver Nicholas Latifi by over 50 points. Unfortunately, there were no F1 seats available at the time, so he went to Formula E where he won back-to-back championships in 2020 and 2021. He’s also raced at Le Mans a few times. 

While some might have given up on F1 given his age, he kept at it, serving as the Mercedes reserve driver after Esteban Ocon returned to the grid in 2021. 

NDV’s Big Break

Fast forward to Monza 2022, when Alex Albon has to get last minute appendix surgery due to appendicitis.  As the story goes, he only discovered he’d be driving in the second Williams car on Saturday morning, as he was sipping his morning espresso and looking at data. He had to sprint across the paddock to Williams from Mercedes and get ready for FP3 and quali the same day. Hilariously, he had actually done a test drive for Aston Martin in FP1 that weekend, which was likely a blessing – because it gave him extra time on the track, and a curse – because it was in a completely different car. 

De Vries went on to qualify 13th which turned into 8th after driver penalties were awarded. Amazingly, he managed to mostly hold position despite many of those drivers fighting back through the field in stronger cars, scoring 9th and earning Williams 2 points. So, in his debut race, De Vries ended up scoring 25% of Williams’s 2022 Constructors points, and beating his teammate Latifi. 

Jump into an F1 car and crush it, no prob…

The whole weekend proved incredibly emotional for him and for us as fans. He revealed that his Dad was staying at his place in Monaco when the change was announced, and he surprised Nyck by driving to the race. They couldn’t even speak when they saw each other – it was too emotional. He also had this heartwarming moment after the race, as drivers across the paddock came to congratulate him in his car. He literally couldn’t get out of the car because his shoulders were too tired – he had to radio his team to help him out.

Despite his success across other series, it seems like De Vries has stayed humble and hungry, and we are so excited for this rookie – if he even counts as a rookie given that experience – to hit the grid in ‘23. 

Alpha Tauri

After that stellar debut, De Vries became a hot commodity in last season’s scorching hot silly season. He was reportedly in talks with everyone from Alpine to Williams, where he was initially expected to be a frontrunner to replace Latifi. Granted, with Williams finishing dead last in the Constructors yet again, he must’ve wondered if he could do better.

Interestingly, his Dutch connection came in handy. He caught up with Max soon after over dinner in Monaco, who quickly set him up to chat with Helmut Marko about a potential seat at Alpha Tauri, Red Bull’s junior team. 

In a convoluted set of events, Pierre Gasly had been stuck at Alpha Tauri, eyeing a seat at a proper midfield team but unable to leave the Red Bull program until they found a suitable replacement for him.

Now, it looked like De Vries might be the solution. De Vries ended up signing with Alpha Tauri later that week and Gasly was released to sign with Alpine.  While that sadly ended the sweetest bromance between Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly as teammates, we’re excited to see this new pairing on the grid. Marko was so bullish as to say that De Vries would become the de facto team leader despite his rookie status, "Yuki is young and doesn’t have this experience and background, so [Nyck] should lead the team," Marko said. "We will see how it goes next year, but from the experience and the personality he has, he should be the team leader." That dynamic should make for a spicy start for this pairing in 2023.

If all goes well, it seems like Max and Helmut Marko are preparing De Vries to be the number two at Red Bull’s premier team alongside his countryman and old friend. Right now, it seems like that seat is Checo’s to lose and his to win. And while Piastri likely made some enemies coming into the sport, it feels like De Vries is the rookie everyone is rooting for in 2023.

LFG! I dream of the Yuki / Nyck content we will get this season!!