Yahoo Autos AlphaTauri Signs Nyck de Vries, Replacing Pierre Gasly
Nyck de Vries, the 2019 Formula 2 and 2020-21 Formula E champion, will finally get his shot at full-time Formula 1 racing. Red Bull-affiliated team AlphaTauri has announced that de Vries will join the team for the 2023 season, pairing him with third-year prospect Yuki Tsunoda.
While de Vries is a relatively old Formula 1 rookie at 27, he has been pushing to join the grid for more than three seasons. The Dutch racer won his first Formula 2 race all the way back in 2017 before wining a title in his third season, but a persistent lack of F1 opportunities for third-year F2 champions meant that de Vries instead spent 2020 in Formula E and sports cars. In Formula E, he headlined the now-shuttered Mercedes EQ team with four wins, eight podiums, and a championship over three seasons of racing. In FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2, he has one win and three 24 Hours of Le Mans starts over 15 career races.
2023 has long been the year de Vries was supposed to break into F1, but the move to AlphaTauri is a relative surprise. de Vries was initially expected to join Williams, who he starred with in relief of Alex Albon at Monza this season, while Colton Herta was expected to get this seat. When Herta's request for an FIA super license was rejected just as de Vries finished that great weekend at a track where the low-drag Williams excelled, AlphaTauri decided to let Pierre Gasly walk to Alpine anyway and make room for de Vries.
The de Vries signing leaves just two open spots on the grid, one at Haas and one at Williams. With 2019 and 2021 F2 champions de Vries and Oscar Piastri signed, 2022 F2 champion Felipe Drugovich already settling for a practice role with Aston Martin, and IndyCar stars Colton Herta and Pato O'Ward ineligible for super licenses, there are suddenly no significant new prospects available for either team to consider.
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