Nyck de Vries has reportedly been taken to court' by a Dutch millionaire, who is accusing him of violating the terms of a loan agreement signed in 2018. De Vries is understood to deny the allegation and asserts that the loan has expired.
De Vries, 27, holds a Formula 1 race seat this year for the first time in his career. He will make his AlphaTauri debut at the first race of the season in Bahrain, having earned that seat on the back of a sensational surprise debut with Williams in Italy last year.
But his preparations appear to have been overshadowed by a reported legal complaint. According to Dutch news outlet Financieel Dagblad, he is being taken to court by millionaire Jeroen Schothorst, who accuses the racer of "systematically withholding information" regarding a loan agreement from 2018.
The Dutch news report claims De Vries took a loan from Schothorst's company that year as he chased his F1 dream. He needed €250,000 to fund a seat in Formula 2 with Prema and borrowed it from Schothorst, who was acquainted with his father.
The millionaire is reported to have charged an interest rate of 3 percent per year on that loan and also 50 percent of his income were he make it to F1. De Vries has, according to the report, repaid almost €190,000 of interest on the loan.
But there was also a clause within the contract which stated that the loan would be cancelled if he had not made it to the top single-seater class by 2022. Having failed to secure an F1 contract by last year, De Vries was apparently under the assumption that the loan had been cancelled.
However, Schothorst says he is now taking legal action alleging that another rule within the loan agreement, that De Vries had to regularly report his earnings to the millionaire, was not followed.
"Let me first of all say that I think it is fantastic for Nyck that he has become successful as a F1 driver and that two Dutch drivers will be at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix in August," Schothorst told De Telegraaf. "We invested in De Vries' career at a crucial time and when no-one else wanted to do that anymore.
"We now disagree about the interpretation of the agreement we entered into with each other at the time. Things like that happen and unfortunately we cannot avoid taking the matter to court. We really would have preferred to see it differently, but that does not alter the fact that, as a motorsport fan, I wish Nyck every success in the rest of his career."
The F1 driver denies the allegation that he has broken the terms of the loan and his lawyer, Jeroen Bedaux, says he provided all necessary information. Bedaux suggested at a court hearing on Tuesday that the fact De Vries turned down an offer from Schothorst to become his F1 manager "plays a role" in the situation.
"Everything shows that Investrand [Schothorst's investment company] cannot accept that De Vries became a race driver in Formula 1 in the 2023 season, and not in the last year of the agreement," Bedaux is reported to have told the court.
Schothorst has demanded that all of the racer's contracts between 2018 and 2022 be disclosed. The court in Amsterdam is set to rule on that motion in early February, before the upcoming F1 season begins, with more proceedings likely to follow.
Bedaux said his client has offered to repay the €250,000 loan on top of the €190,000 already paid, but that proposal has been rejected by Schothorst. Scuderia AlphaTauri declined to comment when approached by Mirror Sport.
