“Who Knows?”: Not Italian GP Performance, But Dinner Date With Max Verstappen Brought Nyck de Vries Into Red Bull Family

As F1 returned from the summer break a week back, it brought in good news for Nyck de Vries. Even though nothing was concrete till Singapore, the Japanese Grand Prix has brought an exciting opportunity for Nyck de Vries, where Max Verstappen had played a vital role.

Scuderia AlphaTauri signed de Vries for the upcoming 2023 season to partner with Yuki Tsunoda. The rumors first started after de Vries’s stunning race in Monza where de picked up points in his F1 debut. Moreover, picking up P9 in Williams is a valiant effort and has been applauded by many. One among them was Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman has not only praised his compatriot but also helped him get in touch with the Red Bull hierarchy. The Dutchman told ViaPlay in an interview, “After Monza we went to dinner, and discussed the opportunities and I said, just call Helmut, who knows?”

“And then he did, so that’s smart, and as you see, then you have a seat for the years and that’s of course very beautiful.”

The newest AlphaTauri recruit further revealed the backstory of his recruitment in an interview with ViaPlay. Talking about this, De Vries shared, “Max has, without a doubt, said a few good words about me to Dr. Marko, & later that week I was in Austria, that’s how fast it went.”

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“On the other hand, I was also in conversation with Williams, I was testing for Alpine… but yeah, the most obvious decision is then clear.”

Nyck de Vries replaces Pierre Gasly at AlphaTauri

As the Dutchman is all set to drive for AlphaTauri alongside Yuki Tsunoda, he replaced long-time Red Bull associate Pierre Gasly. Gasly, a Red Bull faithful for almost a decade, has now decided to shift to the Enstone-based outfit.

After spending 6 years in F1 with Red Bull and AlphaTauri (previously Torro Rosse), Gasly has shared his thoughts on social media. The Frenchman will be occupying the seat left vacant by Fernando Alonso, who will move to Aston Martin in 2023.

Admittedly, Nyck de Vries is 27 years old and currently the reserve driver for the Mercedes AMG F1. The Dutchman has not only won the Formula E championship in 2020-21, but also won the F2 Championship in 2019.

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Apart from those titles, de Vries also won Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Alps and Karting World Championship. All in all, the deal looks solid for both AlphaTauri and Nyck de Vries. It’ll be interesting to see how things turn out to be in the upcoming 2023 season.