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Though Nyck de Vries had a slightly circuitous route to a 2023 AlphaTauri Formula 1 seat – one that Pierre Gasly initially had a right to and then Colton Herta was earmarked for – since his surprise signing his new boss Franz Tost has regularly mentioned how long he’s been a De Vries admirer.
Tost has previously cited how De Vries’ karting form wowed him and his partner in what was then Toro Rosso, Gerhard Berger.
But he took that praise a step further in Bahrain this week.
Tost was answering a series of questions about Max Verstappen – who of course had made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso – when he unilaterally diverted his answers towards De Vries instead and drew parallels between the two Dutchmen’s karting prowess.
Asked when he first felt Verstappen was a future F1 champion, Tost began: “It was in karting. What he showed in kart races… mamma mia.
“But the same with Nyck de Vries! I saw kart races from Nyck and from Max where I thought what they did there, how they drove, how they overtook, how they had everything under control, was fantastic.”
Tost then briefly returned to the requested topic to eulogise about Verstappen’s Norisring European Formula 3 pace in 2014.
But having piqued the media pack’s interest by equating double world champion Verstappen and F1 rookie De Vries’ ability as karters, Tost was asked to expand his thoughts on his new signing’s karting career.
“I remember in those days when I said – Gerhard was also there with us, in Toro Rosso – ‘hey, Nyck de Vries, we must have him, he is so good’,” said Tost. “And then it was McLaren that took him under contract.”
De Vries was a double champion in WSK KF3 karting, beating future Red Bull-backed F1 drivers Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat to the 2009 European title, and then took back-to-back world titles at KF1 level across 2010 and ’11.
There were suggestions from rivals that De Vries benefited particularly from his small stature in karting and from being a lead driver in Dino Chiesa’s factory karting team.
His career certainly lost momentum at first in car racing. Though he won European and Alps titles in Formula Renault 2.0, it took him three years to do so.
“I was a little bit surprised when he did Formula Renault, I think it was his first formula year, yeah? I expected more then,” said Tost.
“Later it came, he won then in Formula Renault, GP3, Formula 2 and then the Formula E world championship.”
Third in Formula Renault 3.5 as a rookie in 2015 was praiseworthy, though this Oliver Rowland-dominated season didn’t have the strength in depth of the preceding years, and De Vries was a GP3 race winner but only sixth in the championship in 2016 as Charles Leclerc won that title.
Formula 2 was another case of a title at the third attempt, though he won races in each season, and that set up the Mercedes Formula E opportunity that led to De Vries becoming a world champion in 2021.
De Vries’ junior car racing career may have been relatively meandering compared to his karting achievements, but form on the single-seater ladder is not always a reliable guide to who will thrive and who will flop in F1.
While expecting De Vries to emulate Verstappen in F1 would be a stretch, Tost is certainly confident in what the driver who wowed him so long ago is going to bring to AlphaTauri in 2023.
“He is very experienced, you can see and feel that he is 28 years old, that he won a lot of races and championships,” said Tost.
“And I think that he will be able to adapt to Formula 1 immediately. I expect him to perform well from the first qualifying onwards.”
