Nyck de Vries has admitted that he has had talks with three F1 teams regarding a drive for the 2023 season. Following on from a remarkable F1 debut at the Italian GP, where he claimed ninth place as stand-in for Alex Albon, the Dutch driver has boosted his chances of a place on the 2023 grid. The Mercedes reserve driver had already been linked with a Williams seat, but has recently become a reported target for two teams higher up on the 2022 grid; Alpine and AlphaTauri. In an interview on the weekend after his Italian GP heroics, De Vries was asked if there was any truth to him having discussions with Williams, Alpine and AlphaTauri. "Those are the facts," confirmed De Vries on Dutch TV show Humberto on Saturday . He refuted any suggestion of having the power to decide his team for 2023, but suggested Williams were the frontrunners for his signature. "I don't think I can just choose, because things are still largely out of my control. "I've been in talks with Williams for a very long time and I happened to be able to make my debut there. So that could be a logical step."
De Vries admits to test drives and discussions
The availability of the Alpine seat is linked to current AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly, who is believed to be their main target for 2023. However, Alpine are believed to be assessing their options, including De Vries. AlphaTauri only seem willing to let Gasly go once they have a replacement. This was originally believed to be IndyCar's Colton Herta, but the difficulty in obtaining a Super Licence means he is out of the running. Instead, AlphaTauri have turned their attentions to De Vries, who was spotted meeting with Red Bull Motorsport Advisor Helmut Marko during the week. In the same interview, De Vries admitted that the reports of an Alpine test, and conversations with Marko were all true, making both teams viable options for next season. "With Alpine I have been talking since July, and for that team I will also be testing in Budapest (at the Hungaroring) next week," conceded De Vries. "As the media have already noted, I was in Austria last week to meet Dr Marko and talk to him about the future. So those are the facts at the moment. "Wherever I will possibly get a seat, I will be very happy with that, but we now have to see how the situation develops in the coming days to weeks."
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