Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff praised the job Nyck de Vries did for the team in practice today, but said they’re unlikely to be able to help him find a full-time race seat in Formula 1.
De Vries stood in for Lewis Hamilton in today’s first practice session. He set a best time of 1’35.426 which put him ninth-fastest, 0.545 seconds off team mate George Russell.“Today was very, very good,” Wolff told Sky after practice. Hamilton looked on in the team’s garage throughout the session. “It was interesting because he was coaching Nick, he was helping him with the overlays and it was quite interesting to see,” Wolff added.
De Vries drove for the team to fulfil part of a new FIA requirement this year for teams to run drivers with minimal prior F1 experience during practice sessions. He previously drove for Williams in first practice for the Spanish Grand Prix and narrowly out-paced the team’s regular driver, Nicholas Latifi.
As well as racing for Mercedes in Formula E, where he is the reigning world champion, De Vries won the Formula 2 championship in 2019. But following Russell’s arrival at Mercedes this year, Wolff says there is no opportunity for the team to help him find a seat in F1.
“I think if we’re not able to provide him with an interesting Formula 1 project, we need to let him go,” said Wolff. “He’s looking at the various options, sports cars and then maybe Formula E. But you must never give up on the opportunity that one day a Formula 1 door can open.”
Mercedes “can’t really help him,” Wolff added. “We can’t really tell any team to look at him and consider him, because that would be felt like an interference, and that goes the contrary way.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2022 French Grand Prix
- Ferrari’s season of missed chances led to “difficult” criticism for Binotto
- McLaren looking into why their starts are “more inconsistent” this year
- Mercedes expect Hungarian GP will ‘expose our qualifying weakness’
- Hamilton and Russell ‘out-performing a car that’s not good enough’ – Wolff
- “We need to decide now”: Inside Sainz and Ferrari’s French GP strategy dilemma
miciek (@micio)
22nd July 2022, 15:21
Do I remember correctly that last year Wolff was saying totally opposite things about making sure Bottas would “have a safe landing in F1”?
Green Flag (@greenflag)
22nd July 2022, 15:32
Because Bottas was a loyal team member for years, and helped MB to several championships.
miciek (@micio)
22nd July 2022, 15:43
yeah I get it, but it was an interference nevertheless
petebaldwin (@)
22nd July 2022, 17:45
@greenflag – Right so you’re saying Toto can help but De Vries doesn’t deserve it…?
Tom
23rd July 2022, 10:57
Bottas getting a seat had nothing to do with Wolff
Asanator (@asanator)
22nd July 2022, 15:33
And pushing Racing Point/Alpine to take Ocon!
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
22nd July 2022, 15:54
It’s almost as if he was doing his job as Ocon’s manager. Shocking.
This is the problem though, Toto has way too many hats in F1.
Biker56 (@biker56)
22nd July 2022, 15:46
@micio Please, could you explain what the point of your comment is?
Your memory is indeed correct, TW made a different comment, about a different team member, under different circumstances, in a different year. I predict other people in the sport will make unconnected comments about other unconnected things in the future.
miciek (@micio)
22nd July 2022, 18:55
@biker56 The point of my comment was to point out the hypocrisy. TW said:
But we know he did that in the last season… So what was the point of saying that?
Charlie Racing
23rd July 2022, 7:33
Toto only ever says what’s suits him at that moment
miciek (@micio)
23rd July 2022, 23:29
Seems like it. And so many people just take his word for it.
Biker56 (@biker56)
23rd July 2022, 13:58
@micio
The point of saying what he said was to communicate his thoughts to the listener. That is how language works.
In the case of VB, TW acted differently, because circumstances were different. That is not hypocrisy.
Biker56 (@biker56)
23rd July 2022, 14:01
@micio You seem to imply TW is acting in bad faith to secretly harm NDV’s career, in order to further his nefarious scheme to ????? What exactly?
miciek (@micio)
23rd July 2022, 23:27
@biker56 I am not implying anything really. Just pointing out that Wolff tried to argument his decision to not help De Vries with something that is generally not true. The truth is that team principals can impact decisions of other teams. And as far as we know TW has been good at placing his protégés in other teams.
I don’t care whether he wants to help De Vries and why not… I just care that his argumentation was hypocritical.
Biker56 (@biker56)
24th July 2022, 0:10
@micio I really do not understand how TW hurt you so badly. Leave it alone now, don’t keep thinking about him, move on in your life.
ethic.
22nd July 2022, 16:02
Toto is Bottas manager.
Qeki (@qeki)
23rd July 2022, 9:43
Was until Bottas joined Merc
Leroy (@g-funk)
22nd July 2022, 16:46
Mercedes may not want to say explicitly to another team to check him out, but making him a reserve driver and giving him FP1 time as well as everything that Toto just said is indeed them saying to other teams that they should check him out. They have said it without saying it.
Steve K
22nd July 2022, 20:30
There is a top of the line IndyCar ride that will be available of he needs to be stashed for a year or two. It worked out great for Montoya.
Adrian
22nd July 2022, 21:34
Another reason why ten teams are not enough.
Jehannes (@jehannes)
23rd July 2022, 10:57
Williams latifi, though he doesn’t have the sponsors to bring him in.
Aston martin vettel.
mclaren ricciardo
mercedes, alpine?