It’s been less than twelve months since the former Formula E champion caused no small amount of chatter in the F1 paddock after standing in at the last minute for an unwell Alex Albon at Monza. Nick de Vries’ superb drive to 9th place in the Williams FW44 set him on course for a bit of a rollercoaster ride after his dream debut behind the wheel of an F1 car.
A number of teams appeared interested in signing the Dutchman for the 2023 season but it was somewhat of a surprise when he ended up at AlphaTauri, somewhat of a departure for the Red Bull junior team to take on someone from outside their junior programme. Of course, the vacant seat at the Faenza based team opened up unexpectedly after Pierre Gasly went to Alpine in place of Fernando Alonso/Oscar Piastri but many were still surprised at their choosing of the 28-year-old Dutch driver.
Unfortunately for de Vries however, this shot at living his dream did not have a dream ending, and after a slew of disappointing results Helmut Marko brought the axe down after just ten races. De Vries, one of only two drivers without a top 10 finish in the 2023 season has now been replaced by Red Bull Racing’s reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo who is “on loan” for the rest of the season. After an initial period of silence, particularly since some false statements were attributed to him, leading to him taking a break from social media, he has now opened up on his plans for the future.
Speaking at the Dutch premiere of the upcoming Gran Turismo film to racingnews365, he revealed that his dismissal from his seat at AlphaTauri was not as hard to take as you would think:
“I had a lot of support and it actually went very naturally. I’ve been playing a lot of golf since then.”
With his vast experience in motor racing and multiple championships to his name, it is unlikely we will have to wait too long to see de Vries back in competitive racing again but we do now know that it will not be this year as he has enrolled in a course at Harvard University in the USA, despite not even finishing high school:
“In September I’m going to take a course at Harvard. Negotiation and Leadership, a little bit of studying. More because I just like it now that I have some time and the interest to learn other things.”
With some time away to reset and perhaps with the added benefit of some extra negotiation skills courtesy of Harvard, maybe we shall see a return to racing for de Vries in 2024.
