Toto Wolff hopes Nyck de Vries has a successful spell racing for Scuderia AlphaTauri in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, and he believes the Dutchman can do a good enough job to move up to Oracle Red Bull Racing in the future.
De Vries will make his full-time debut in Formula 1 in 2023 with AlphaTauri after impressing during a one-off appearance with Williams Racing in the Italian Grand Prix in 2022 when Alexander Albon was unavailable due to illness. Penalties promoted him to a starting position inside the top ten, but he was able to hold on and score two points for ninth place on race day.
Wolff, the Team Principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, released de Vries from his reserve driver contract with his team at the end of the 2022 season as AlphaTauri brought him in to replace the BWT Alpine F1 Team bound Pierre Gasly alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
Wolff says he has considered whether he would bring back de Vries into the Mercedes fold later down the line, but he believes he has what it takes to succeed in Formula 1 and it could be that the Dutchman will end up fighting against Mercedes in a Red Bull, perhaps as soon as the 2025 season when Sergio Pérez’s contract is up.
“I thought about it, [But I hope] that he stays there, and I hope that he’s successful in AlphaTauri,” Wolff is quoted as saying by Polish publication Swiatwyscigow.pl.
“I hope he will be so good to make it into a Red Bull seat one day, because he deserves that.”
“And then we take it like sportsmen, and we fight it out.”
De Vries’ place as Mercedes reserve driver has been taken by Haas F1 Team outcast Mick Schumacher for the 2023 season.
