Door at McLaren wide open for Nyck de Vries F1 return
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The door for a return to Formula 1 is wide open for Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman has already tested for McLaren and his rival for the reserve role has signed with Alpine.
Nyck de Vries had secretly finished a test for McLaren in a Formula 1 car. After his sudden departure from AlphaTauri, it was the first time back in an F1 car for de Vries, who's just completed a test for McLaren at France's Paul Ricard. During that test, De Vries competed with Ryo Hirakawa.
At the time, according to CEO Zak Brown, McLaren was evaluating its options for 2025. Gabriel Bortoleto, Pato O'Ward and Hirakawa were the test and reserve drivers for the team. However, this was before Bortoleto signed a deal with Sauber and the Thursday morning announcement that Hirakawa was making the switch to Alpine.
Nyck de Vries on his way to McLaren?
That leaves only O'Ward as the only reserve driver on the roster for McLaren in 2025. On De Vries' test in France, Brown previously stated, ''It went very well. You know he obviously has a long history and he started his early career at McLaren. We are going through our TPC programme now, to evaluate a few drivers and Nyck is one of those drivers.''
Asked what McLaren is looking for with the test, Brown replied: ''That involves several things. Simulator drivers, test drivers, tyre tests. Unfortunately they won't let me do it, so we had to look elsewhere and Nyck is obviously a great talent. So we wanted to get reacquainted with him and he did well. So we'll see what happens.'' Brown was then also asked when a decision on De Vries would be made. To this he replied: ''Probably at the end of the year.''
For McLaren, Nyck de Vries would be a solid reinforcement. The Dutchman has a lot of experience in motorsport and also drove Grands Prix, several practise sessions and tests in Formula One cars. That should put him ahead of the drivers McLaren had in the simulator last year.
Why reserve drivers are becoming more important in F1
Reserve and simulator drivers are becoming increasingly important in Formula 1. With a lack of on-track testing time, behind-the-scenes drivers are crucial for the in-weekend car setup work, or for the testing of new parts. For example, former F1 driver, Sebastien Buemi, played an important role behind the scenes for Red Bull Racing on several ocassions last season.
Red Bull is not the only team to use experienced drivers for this. Mercedes, for example, had Mick Schumacher in the same role in 2024, and Ferrari also had another experienced driver on the payroll with Antonio Giovinazzi, but appointed Oliver Bearman when a reserve was really needed in Saudi Arabia.
Asked whether Nyck de Vries will be appointed as McLaren's new reserve driver, the team told GPblog that there is nothing to report at this time. Also, nothing could be shared at this time about whether the decision has already been made by the team.
This article was written in collaboration with Norberto Mujica.
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