Nyck de Vries says that the attention shown by Toyota Gazoo Racing is encouraging after spending Sunday driving the TS050 Hybrid at the Bahrain rookie test.
The current Formula 2 champion and Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E driver is in his second season in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Racing Team Nederland. De Vries joined the Dutch squad after 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jan Lammers stepped down from the team after the 2018 edition of the French endurance classic. He was invited by Toyota to test its TS050 Hybrid LMP1 car and shared the #8 car with Brendon Hartley and Thomas Laurent.
When asked by Motorsport Week at the Bahrain International Circuit how he feels about the Japanese manufacturer’s interest, De Vries replied:
“It’s encouraging, but at the same time, things change quickly in this world and the only way to keep your career going and to create opportunities, open up doors is to perform on track and that’s where my focus is and will remain.
So I’m obviously very happy that they’ve being following me, but at the same time I’m aware that to continue to do a good job and open up doors and create opportunities for myself.”
In the current campaign, he delivered Racing Team Nederland its first win in the WEC, taking the chequered flag in the #29 ORECA 07-Gibson at the 6 Hours of Fuji. The Dutchman was noticeably impressed with the driving characteristics of Toyota’s top line LMP1 machinery.
“We had our preparations on Monday, we did a sim, so I had a kind of first feeling for it, I would say, which was already different than what I expected,” De Vries said. “The fuel cut is quite noticable, so basically you spend the time coasting before you brake.
And then you have the four wheel drive, which is very impressive in the wet, like the grip is huge, which is pretty cool. The car is very stable, the boost out of the corner is quite powerful. So it’s a different car. It’s very differently driven. But it’s a nice and interesting experience.”
Finally, when asked if he would be interested in joining Toyota in the future, De Vries replied:
“Obviously, I will try to do the best possible job I can, but yes, certainly. I’m really enjoying WEC and if we could do something together in the near future, I would be very interested and happy to do so.”
