Nyck de Vries is on the verge of being announced as an AlphaTauri driver for the 2023 season, according to reports.
Dutch journalist, Erik van Haren, has reported that the 27-year-old’s contract has been drawn up, and the only thing left to do now is wait for Pierre Gasly to be announced as an Alpine driver.
De Vries won the 2019 Formula 2 Championship during the last of his nine years as part of the McLaren young drivers’ programme, but was unable to secure a seat in Formula 1 for 2020.
He turned his attentions to Formula E with Mercedes EQ, and he won the 2021 championship as a member of the German side.
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Conjointly with his electric exploits, the Dutchman has been serving as part of the Mercedes F1 team, and he is currently their test and reserve driver.
He has also raced in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with Racing Team Nederland, G-Drive and TDS.
This is a position he will relinquish at the end of 2022, at which point many were initially tipping him to join Williams alongside Alex Albon.
He out-performed Nicholas Latifi through qualifying and the race in Monza having been called up to the British side at short notice when Albon fell ill with appendicitis.
The Canadian will be dropped at the end of the season as a result of his subpar performances, but de Vries will not be the driver replacing him.
Gasly is contracted to Red Bull and AlphaTauri until the end of next season, but an opportunity has arisen to join Alpine after they fumbled their contractual situation with Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri.
READ: Mick Schumacher more likely to join Alpine than AlphaTauri
Red Bull have been waiting for the right driver to appear as a replacement for the Frenchman before they allow him to leave, and they tried to go for Colton Herta.
Sadly, the IndyCar series does not hold the same value, in general, that Formulae 2 and 3 do, so it is now looking likely that he will not be able to race in F1 for at least another year.
According to van Haren, Gasly’s move to Alpine can now be completed after a fee was agreed to buy him out of his contract, because de Vries’ signature with AlphaTauri has been finalised.