De Vries: I deserve to be on 2023 F1 grid

Nyck de Vries believes he has earned the right to be on the Formula 1 grid for the 2023 Formula 1 season.

The Dutchman is currently rumoured to be in contention for a drive next year, most likely with the Williams team in place of Nicholas Latifi.

De Vries drove Williams’ car in Spain earlier this year, and on Friday at Monza, he got behind the wheel of Aston Martin’s challenger for the opening practice session of the weekend.

The 27-year-old won the 2019 Formula 2 Championship before claiming the title in the seventh season of Formula E.

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This year, he has been logging more F1 experience as Mercedes’ reserve driver, and feels that he is deserving of a promotion to a full-time seat for 2023.

“Time will tell,” he said of his plans for next year. “It’s out of my hands, it’s not in my control.

“Obviously it is a dream and I think I would deserve a chance. But ultimately it’s not up to me to decide a driver line-up.”

De Vries’ Monza outing was his third of the year, having also driven for Mercedes in France earlier this season.

He logged 22 laps over the course of the one-hour session in Italy and had a trip through the gravel during one of his laps, leading him to describe it as a difficult outing.

“It was very difficult, we were running with a low downforce package here, the nature of the track, the characteristics of the current generation cars, on top of the low downforce makes it extremely challenging,” he said. 

“We kind of devoted a majority of the first half of the session to aero data and collection. In the end, I can still be satisfied with what I’ve done. But it was very challenging.”

De Vries also spoke of the benefit of getting to experience a race weekend with three different F1 organisations.

“It might sound cliché, but it’s honestly very valuable to get to look inside three different teams and organisations, see how they operate and approach different things, where they put their emphasis and also feel the difference between the three cars,” he said. 

“I think it’s been a privilege to get that opportunity and experience under my belt.”