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Fernando Alonso said it was “definitely” an impressive performance by the debutant. “I think when you jump in a car and you only have one practice, obviously it’s difficult to get up to speed. So a very good day for him. Hopefully tomorrow a good race as well.”
De Vries became the first person in more than 40 years to drive two different F1 cars in a single race weekend, as he took part in first practice yesterday for Aston Martin. Alonso said that will have helped him adjust to the Williams.
“I think it helped him to do FP1, arguably, so he got a little bit more experience,” said Alonso. “But I think he’s doing good and hopefully tomorrow we can fight as well in the race, not too much, but it’s going to be good fun.”
De Vries was previously a junior driver at McLaren and is now backed by Mercedes. One driver he worked with at both teams is Lewis Hamilton, who said he deserves a full-time place on the grid.
“I haven’t seen his quali performance but Nyck is a very talented driver,” said Hamilton. “I’ve known him since he was really young, when I was at McLaren my dad was trying to help him get into Formula 1.
“He’s been a real valuable member of our team, he works does a lot of work on the simulator. He’s always super-positive, he fires me emails. And so I was so happy to hear this morning that he’ll be given the opportunity to drive.
“He deserves a place here, I think, so I hope today’s been good for him.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
10th September 2022, 19:07
More than 40 years, so presumably someone in the early-1980s.
More relevantly, he did well under the circumstances, & his performance also speaks volumes about Latifi, who has driven the entire season thus far, while De Vries’ only previous driving experience at Williams is from Spanish GP FP1.
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
10th September 2022, 19:41
It just seems a bit ironic that so many, teams and individuals are making the comment that (insert any of 3, 4 or 5 names here) deserves a place on the F1 grid, when there is so much resistance to increasing the number of teams.
Maybe what we need are 12, 13 or 14 teams and 24 or more seats available. It would get my vote.
Like the Nike Guy said …. “Just Do it.!” Wonder what Bernie would do.?
Edvaldo
10th September 2022, 19:44
Man, de Vries guy was driving a Aston Martin yesterday. He sat on the Williams for the first time today and was faster than Latifi who’s there for 3 seasons.
Time for Williams to try something different. People talk about Stroll but this guy is much, much worse, a complete waste of a seat.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th September 2022, 21:13
Yeah, pretty clear Williams would do well to offer De Vries that race seat for next year since Latifi really does not seems to have much potential to get anywhere while Nyck shows he might be able to match the kind of pace Albon has shown their car to have even with very little preparation.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
10th September 2022, 20:49
If De Vries can just jump in at Williams at short notice, defeat Latifi and have a top 10 start tomorrow, what the hell is Albon usually doing then in that Williams?
BasCB (@bascb)
10th September 2022, 21:15
Pretty sure Albon would have qualified close to the top ten, or possibly would have been in Q3 here @spafrancorchamps, we saw it in the last couple of races there has been a really solid gap between him and Latifi for most qualifying sessions.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
10th September 2022, 21:34
Yes, and that seems pretty solid, until a new guy steps in the car and immediately does the exact same. Without having almost a full season of experience with this car.
It makes me believe he could do much more than Albon if he’d have a couple of more race weekends under his belt with this car.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
11th September 2022, 2:43
@spafrancorchamps It might make you believe it. It doesn’t make it so. It simply isn’t possible to ‘know’ where Albon would have ended up.
Sure, if De Vries was in the seat for a few races and showed a consistently greater margin that Albon managed, then there is some basis for such a thought, but otherwise this is not a very qualified assumption.
That said, I agree that NDV has done a great job (and/or NL continues to do a bad one).
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
11th September 2022, 3:00
He must have had his appendix out already.
Mayrton
10th September 2022, 20:59
Nice!