It has been a long time coming for Nyck de Vries, but this year will be the first in which he is finally a regular fixture on the Formula 1 grid.
The first race of the season in Bahrain won't be his debut – that came unexpectedly at Monza last year, and gave him the opportunity to shine that he grasped with both hands. That cameo for Williams in Italy went a long way in helping the Dutchman to finally live out his F1 dream.
After all, De Vries has been waiting a long time. He went through the same rigorous process every young driver experiences as he worked his way up the junior formulae, but even after winning the 2019 Formula 2 championship there was still no place in the top category for him.
So he joined Formula E and won that title in his second season. Still, no F1 team came calling. Undeterred, he remained in the series and continued in his role as a Mercedes reserve driver and took that chance in Italy, when he just happened to already be in the paddock when Alex Albon became unwell.
Signed by AlphaTauri a few weeks later, De Vries' time has finally come. Not only does it mean he will be able to live out the dreams he had as a little boy, but it also helped to make the sacrifices his father made worth it.
"I got into motorsport through my family," said the 27-year-old in an interview released by the team. "My father used to own car dealerships and also raced a little bit himself. Cars have always been part of my family's DNA, with my great grandfather originally starting the dealerships and my father eventually ended up running them.
"My father sold everything though, to be able to put all his time and effort into me and my racing career, so as much as it was my dream and goal to make it in motorsport, it was also his.
"A big part of the karting scene is in Italy, because a lot of the manufacturers are based there, so when I started karting at an International level I naturally started to spend a lot of time there. So, as a family we decided it was more convenient to have a base in Italy, to travel to and from races.
"This helped me to develop my Italian language. I actually spent five days learning a business language course – you were only allowed to speak Italian – so I picked up a lot of the language there before I moved to Italy with my family. I'm not fluent, but being at Scuderia AlphaTauri is already helping me to improve."
