Once again, a door closes for De Vries: where can he go in '24?
General
- Ludo van Denderen
Nyck de Vries seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. After his abrupt and forced departure from AlphaTauri, the driver did show up at the premiere of a film and did some laps during a motorsport event in Assen, but the Dutchman did not look back extensively on his unpleasant adventure with the Italian team. What his future holds is also unknown. In silence, De Vries is undoubtedly looking at options for '24, but more and more potential opportunities are falling out of the picture.
De Vries is known to be taking a short course at Harvard. Nothing is officially known about his future in racing. De Vries was reportedly in the picture for Nissan and Maserati Formula E teams. Nissan has since announced its line-up for 2024, and that did not include De Vries. Maserati has an ongoing commitment with Edoardo Mortara and it seems a matter of time before Maximilian Guenther signs a new contract there.
Also in IndyCar, option seems to be gone
In Formula E, hardly any free seats remain open. Among the teams still looking for a driver for '24, De Vries' name does not come up. In another racing class, namely IndyCar, De Vries tested with Meyer Shank Racing's team a year ago. At the time, the team was hugely impressed by the Dutchman's performance.
Therefore, when De Vries left Formula 1, he was soon rumoured to be in the picture at Meyer Shank Racing. On Tuesday, however, the modest team announced it had contracted Felix Rosenqvist for next year. He will race alongside Tom Blomqvist. During the Indy 500, by the way, MSR will deploy a third car, driven by Helio Castroneves.
Thus, there are fewer and fewer options for De Vries. The most obvious is a return to the World Endurance Championship (WEC). In the past, he already competed in this series, in the LMP2 class. From the 2024 season, LMP2 disappears from the WEC championship, as there is a large field of hypercars. Possibly at one of those teams, a spot will soon be free for De Vries. The WEC season is still in full swing and many teams have not yet announced their full line-ups for next year.