Nyck de Vries has opened up on how he suffered from the pressure of standing out while climbing through the motorsport ranks as he prepares to finally take part in his first season as a Formula 1 driver.
The Dutchman, aged 27, will drive for AlphaTauri this season. A stroke of luck ended up playing a major part in the move, as De Vries was given the surprise opportunity to make his debut at last year's Italian Grand Prix.
It was a chance he grabbed with both hands, scoring points in an uncompetitive Williams car at Monza. Several teams were soon courting De Vries, who decided to join the Red Bull family by replacing Pierre Gasly at AlphaTauri.
"I'm one of the older guys, so I've walked quite a long journey to get here," he told the team's Tauri Talk podcast. "I actually grew up with many of the current drivers on the grid. I feel like I'm kind of part of their generation."
De Vries is a Formula 2 and Formula E champion, but neither of those achievements were a catalyst to his big break in F1. But he is no stranger to adversity, having buckled at times under the weight of the pressure as a youngster in the feeder series.
After all, he was coming through at a time when Lewis Hamilton – a champion in his second year in F1 – had set an enormously high benchmark for a rookie. He explained: "We had a very successful time in karting. We won the European championship and two consecutive world championships, signed with McLaren at the time.
"I think the timing was really good because Lewis just made his debut in Formula 1 and that was obviously a very successful story and therefore a lot of Formula 1 teams were kind of interested in young drivers and scouts at a young age to kind of replicate a similar success story.
"The first kind of years in cars were a little bit tougher. I think they were still good in terms of performance, but because the expectations were so high, I probably could never do it good enough. It took a little bit longer to get up to speed.
"I think physically I was also quite underdeveloped. I was a late bloomer, so I was 17, but probably my body was 14. But I got going and eventually won Formula Renault, finished third in Formula Renault 3.5, which was at the time the equivalent of Formula 2. And then I ended up in GP3 and that was probably my toughest season in single seater racing in '16."
Eventually, after several periods with very little financial backing and struggles with more expectation in F2, he left the McLaren stable to join Mercedes in Formula E. He became a champion there as well and was a reserve driver for the F1 team, but there was no opportunity to move over on the horizon.
Then came that lucky break at Monza. With Alex Albon hospitalized with appendicitis, De Vries was scrambled down to the Williams garage and hastily prepared to complete the weekend, making an unexpected but much welcomed F1 bow.
A conversation with Max Verstappen over dinner the night after the race led to meetings with Helmut Marko about a Red Bull switch. And now he is preparing to finally live his childhood dream, tasked with helping his new team move back up the grid after a poor 2022 season.
