Nyck de Vries Opens Up on Journey to the Summit Despite Being Brutally Rejected 4 Times: “Deep Down, I Always…”

It has been a pure tale of persistence and hope for Nyck de Vries. Despite being the F2 champion, he could not find a seat in F1 after 2019. While he ventured into Formula E, his eyes were always set on the summit of F1. De Vries’ determination and skills helped him to become the Formula E World champion in 2021. Still, it took a while for F1 teams to recognize the Dutchman’s value.

De Vries has had to go through the hard way to find an F1 drive. In the past year or so, Nyck has featured in official and unofficial sessions for 5 different F1 teams. As per GPBlog.com, he opened up to the DAY1 YouTube channel on how he persisted, despite being rejected 4 times in the last year or so.

He said, “You are so close and so far away. Deep down, I always kept a certain faith [to get into F1], despite being rejected four times in the last year.” The Dutchman was a Mercedes reserve driver and often featured in FP1 sessions and testing days.

Besides them, De Vries drove for Aston Martin and Williams too in the 2022 season, scoring points in his F1 debut race in Italy with the latter.

Nyck also had tested for Alpine in an unofficial test during the summer. Eventually, he landed a seat at AlphaTauri, following Pierre Gasly’s move to the Enstone outfit. At the post-season test in Abu Dhabi, Nyck also got a taste of the AlphaTauri car.

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Now, De Vries did not explicitly mention these were the teams that rejected him for a seat. As he has been in conversation with several teams on the grid about making his way into the sport. Still, it is a gritty journey he has endured, and now would love to make it fruitful.

What can Nyck de Vries achieve in his F1 career?

At the age of 27, many consider Nyck de Vries as slightly elder than the average age of rookies in the sport. Although, it ain’t his mistake that F1 teams did not give him a chance earlier.

His 2022 Italian GP performance made him a hot property in the drivers’ market. And why not?  Scoring points on his F1 debut in one of the slower cars on the grid was spectacular from Nyck. But going ahead, can he sustain this level of performance?

He is in the Red Bull stable of drivers now, so that gives him some great scope to progress in his F1 career. With RBR already having a Dutch world champion, they won’t mind if De Vries can give them a solid audition for an all-Dutch lineup at Milton Keynes.

Though, De Vries will have to prove his mettle at AlphaTauri first. Given Red Bull has plenty of young drivers from their Academy program, Nyck has to set his benchmark higher than anyone else for the top-team drive.

Nonetheless, he will keep his scope wide to switch to other teams like Carlos Sainz and his predecessor Gasly have done. If he can show his elite skills and potential, teams will sign him up in a heartbeat.

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Time will tell whether Nyck de Vries can progress enough to get podiums and race wins in his career. For now, he will want to make the most of the AlphaTauri drive and enjoy his debut year in F1 finally after so much struggle. What do you think? How will Nyck de Vries fair in F1?