First day of testing
Nyck de Vries is already getting into the Formula 1 car of his new team AlphaTauri in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The Dutch driver is already allowed to test the team’s current car in preparation for his first season in F1.
With permission from Mercedes, his employer for now, 27-year-old Nyck de Vries will take action on Tuesday during the so-called Young Driver Test at the Yas Marina circuit. The Dutchman is still under contract with Mercedes until the end of this season, but will then make the switch to the Italian team. There he rides next to the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda, instead of the Alpine departing Pierre Gasly.
De Vries has been driving for Mercedes in the Formula E electric racing class in recent years and has been a reserve driver with the German Formula 1 team since the beginning of last year. In that capacity he was regularly present at the GPs. In September he made his official debut in Formula 1. He was allowed to replace the sick Alexander Albon at Williams in the Grand Prix of Italy. De Vries finished ninth at Monza and therefore took 2 World Cup points. A few weeks later, AlphaTauri presented the Dutchman as a regular driver for next season.
Mercedes mechanics tied De Vries to a hand truck on Sunday after the Abu Dhabi GP and delivered him to the AlphaTauri pit box. “We rent it out until the end of the year,” the German racing team wrote on Twitter with a video of that action. During Tuesday’s Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi, many drivers join their new team.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl