AlphaTauri are not expecting to be able to run Nyck de Vries in their 2022 car until after the Formula 1 season is over. The team recently announced that 2019 Formula 2 champion de Vries would be making his full-time Grand Prix debut alongside Yuki Tsunoda in 2023 following news of Pierre Gasly's departure to Alpine. Despite being set to drive for the Italian team, boss Franz Tost has admitted that de Vries will not be able to take part in any Free Practice 1 sessions in the remaining race weekends of the current season.
De Vries not to drive in FP1 sessions
With each team required to hand over both cars in an FP1 session to a young driver who has not competed in more than two Grands Prix, de Vries has been a popular choice in 2022. He has driven for Williams (Spain), Mercedes (France) and Aston Martin (Italy), while AlphaTauri still need to fill Tsunoda's seat in an upcoming session, having had Liam Lawson in Gasly's AT03 in Belgium. Despite de Vries not having any more FP1 sessions planned, Tost has admitted that it is not a possibility to put the 2020/21 Formula E champion in. "I don't think so, because he's still under contract with another team," Tost explained when asked if de Vries would be in for some FP1 sessions. "I hope that we can see him in Abu Dhabi young driver test [after the season has finished]." A traditional two-day test takes place in Abu Dhabi in the week following the last race of the season. It was in the 2020 test where De Vries first drove an F1 car, getting behind the wheel of Mercedes' championship-double winning W11.
Why Tost went for de Vries
De Vries is the first driver signed to AlphaTauri/Toro Rosso with no previous links to the Red Bull outfit since four-time ChampCar champion Sebastian Bourdais in 2008. Tost admitted that de Vries' stand-in performance for Williams at the Italian Grand Prix in place of Alex Albon impressed the team, and was one reason they decided to sign him. "Because he's fast, and I know his history," Tost replied when asked to reveal some of the decision-making factors. "I saw him in karting. He won I think it was 2010 and '11, the European and World Championship in karting and he was really successful. "In all the categories where he raced he won, in Formula Renault, GP3 to Formula 2 and even the Formula E World Championship. "Therefore I think he is a very highly skilled driver, and he deserves to be in Formula 1. We are really looking forward to have him in our car. "[Monza] was important but it was not an eye opener, because Nyck was on the radar also before. "[Then there were] the special circumstances where other drivers left the teams and then Red Bull also decided not to race with Pierre Gasly from 2024 onwards. "All these components together brought us to the decision that Nyck de Vries is the best possibility and that he will fit quite well into the team."
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