Nyck de Vries was born Hendrik Johannes Nicasius “Nyck” de Vriesto dutch parents Hendrikjan de Vries and Naomi Hesseling on 6 February 1995 in Uitwellingerga, Netherlands. De Vries’ got his first opportunity to race in F1 when Williams unexpectedly called on him to race in place of the unwell Alex Albon at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix—finishing 9th in the Grand Prix, scoring his first F1 in Formula One racing on debut.

De Vries began his professional career in Karting at the age of nine. After winning two Karting World Championships he made his single-seater debut in 2012 racing in Renault 2.0 Eurocup with R-ace GP. Thereafter, De Vries progressed through Renault 3.5, GP3 Series, Formula 2, World Endurance Championship and Formula E performing consistently.

Karting 

Nyck de Vries won the WSK World Series and the German Junior Championship for the KF3 category in 2008. He retained both the titles he had won the previous year in 2009. To add to that achievement, he won the European KF3 Championship as well. In 2010 he won the Karting World Championship and repeated the feat again in 2011 before switching to single-seater racing in 2012.

Formula Renault Eurocup

2012

R-ace offered De Vires a cockpit in a single-seater to race in the Eurocup Renault Formula 2.0. He won a podium finish in the first race in Alcañiz with a second-place finish and repeated the result at the Hungaroring. De Vries finish fifth in the season ahead of all his teammates. He also participated in several Formula Renault 2.0 NEC winning on his home track in Assen. De Vries contested in 11 races, finished on the podium four times and finished 10th in the championship.

2013

In 2013, Nyck moved to Koiranen Racing. He competed in Eurocup Renault Formula 2.0. He again finished in fifth position, winning a race each at the Hungaroring and the Circuit de Catalunya.

2014

De Vries was in his element in 2014 in Formula Renault. Staying with Korianen Racing, he won six races and finished on the podium in 11 out of 14 races. Winning the Championship with 254 points, he bettered his nearest rival by 130 points. That year, he also competed in the Alpine Formula Renault. He was beaten to the podium only twice in the 14 races winning 10 of them.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

In 2015, De Vries raced for DAMS in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. He finished the season in third place behind Oliver Rowland and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Although he won only last place, he finished on the podium five times before winning the last race at the Circuito de Jerez.

GP3 Series

ART Grand Prix roped in De Vries for the GP3 Series in 2016. Scoring his first podium at the Red Bull ring in a third-place finish, he got his first pole in Budapest. De Vries took his first win in the second race at Monza and followed it up with a win at the Yas Marina Circuit at the end of the season. He finished sixth that season while his teammates Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon went on to be champion and vice-champion respectively.

FIA Formula 2 Championship

2017

De Vries next proceeded to race in The FIA Formula 2 Championship with Rapax. Before the summer break, he had four podium finishes including a win in the Monte Carlo sprint race. He next joined Racing Engineering to race at Spa-Francorchamps and won the race there. De Vries finished sixth in the championship that season, the second-highest placing among rookies.

2018

In the 2018 season, De Vries joined Prema Racing to partner with Sean Galael. He started the season sombrely with just two podium finishes and had to wait till the sprint race at Le Castellet for his first victory. A pointless round in Austria followed by two outside the top five finishes at Silverstone saw De Vries in a worse position on the points table. Wins in the feature races in Hungary and Belgium were not enough for De Vries to finish in the top three of the season. Alex Alban and Lando Norris led him by ten and 17 points respectively.

2019

ART Grand Prix retained De Vries in 2019 to race in Formula 2 alongside Nikita Mazepin. De Vries started the season well with a podium finish in Baku and a sprint race victory in Barcelona. A win from the pole in Monaco and a win in the main race at Le Castellet saw him taking the championship lead. Two second-place finishes at the Red Bull ring and podium finishes in Silverstone and Budapest further consolidated his lead. Two third-place finishes at Monza and a win in the penultimate round at Sochi saw De Vries cling the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship.

FIA World Endurance Championship

Nyck De Vries signed for Racing Team Nederland on 15 March 2018 to race in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He drove the last stint and took the car over the finish line winning the 6 Hours of Fuji along with his team.

On 6 July 2020, Toyota Gazo Racing Europe GmbH announced that De Vries would be their test and reserve driver. He would test drive the Toyota TSO50 Hybrid and Toyota’s hyper car.

Philippe Cimadomo driver of TDS Racing x Vaillante was barred from starting at the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans. De Vries was on the circuit and was asked to step in. But the car had to be moved from Pro/Am to Pro due to De Vries’ platinum status.

Formula E

2019-2020

The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team announced on 11 September 2019 that De Vries would be its driver. He teamed with Stoffel Vandoorne to finish the season in 11th place with 60 points.

2020-2021

De Vries continued with the Mercedes-EQ Formula E team for the 2020-2021 season. Qualifying on the pole in the season opener at Diriyah ePrix, he proceeded to lead every lap of the race on his way to his first-ever e-Prix victory. Having failed to secure any points in Rome, De Vries excelled at Valencia achieving his second victory of the season. Two rounds went by wherein De Vries secured only two points. He came back strongly in the London ePrix to win both races to lead the championship points table.

In the Berlin ePrix, De Vries did not score any points but maintained his lead. Qualifying thirteenth in the second race he gained an advantage when two leading cars collided early in the race. De Vires finished the race in eighth place winning his first-ever Formula E World Championship.

2021-22

The following season De Vires stuck with Mercedes winning the 8th race in Diriyah. A lacklustre performance saw him finishing in 10th place in the championship. Darius left at the end of the season after securing a contract to race in Formula One.

Formula One

Nyck de Vries was contracted to McLaren Young Drivers Programme in 2010 and to Audi Sport Racing in 2016. He quit McLaren midway through to concentrate on his duties at Audi. He left Audi in 2019.

Test and Reserve Driver

In December 2020, De Vries along with Stoffel Vandoorne got an opportunity to do their first Formula One test for the Mercedes Team at the season-ending Young Driver Test. The following year he and Vandoorne were reserve drivers for the Mercedes Team.

His Formula One testing debut came at the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix when he took Alex Albon’s place at Williams.   De Vries then took Lewis Hamilton’s place at the practice session with a Mercedes car at The French Grand Prix. Another chance in free practice followed in the Mexico City Grand Prix in place of George Russel. He also tested the Alpine A521 in September alongside Antonio Giovinazzi and ack Doohan. De Vries was held on standby to race in place of Lando Norris who was ailing from food poisoning, But Norris recovered in time for the race.

2022 Italian Grand Prix race debut

De Vries participated in the first practice in the 2022 Italian Grand Prix in place of Sebastian Vettel for Aston Martin. Later, for the third practice, he replaced Alex Albon at Williams who developed appendicitis. He qualified thirteenth ahead of his teammate Nicholas Latifi and started eighth after several drivers were penalised. Finishing ninth in the race, he won his first Formula One point on debut and was awarded the Driver of the Day by fans.

2023

Nyck De Vries has been contracted by Scuderia Alpha Tauri for the 2023 Formula One season.

Conclusion

Nyck de Vries had to wait till he was 27 years old before he got a chance to participate in a Formula One Grand Prix. He has been a professional single-seater driver since 2012 and is an experienced racer. How that experience helps in the first full Formula One will be keenly watched by both, his fans and other teams.