Toto Wolff admits he’s a ‘fan’ of 28-year-old driver, suggests he should be candidate for Red Bull seat

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Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has been speaking about ex-AlphaTauri driver Nick de Vries.

Wolff was speaking on Sky Sports F1 about the 28-year-old Dutch driver.

It’s not been the easiest season for anyone at AlphaTauri this year.

There was plenty of excitement around the paddock when it was announced that they had signed Nyck de Vries after his extraordinary cameo at Williams in 2022.

He replaced Nicholas Latifi at Monza, scored two points in arguably the slowest car on the grid and won driver of the day.

Fast forward less than a year and De Vries’s chance of becoming an established Formula 1 driver might already be over.

AlphaTauri once again have one of the poorest cars on the grid, although Yuki Tsunoda has managed to score three points this season.

It’s even been noticed on the grid how much better the Japanese driver is doing this year.

However, Toto Wolff thinks Nyck de Vries was unlucky to lose his seat so early in the year.

He even goes on to say that he could have ended up being a candidate for a seat at Red Bull if given the chance.

Wolff admits surprise about De Vries exit

Asked about the 28-year-old, Wolff said: “Maybe he needed more time. If he had been given the season, who knows?

“Maybe he would have been a really good candidate for the Red Bull seat, too?

“They wanted, I think, to do some benchmarking with Ricciardo. To see if Daniel might be able to take [Sergio Perez’s] seat.

“Once you’ve made that decision, then of course [De Vries will] fall through the cracks.

“I’m a fan of [De Vries] because he’s incredibly intelligent for vehicle development and has always contributed a lot.”

Wolff and De Vries have worked closely before during his time as a test driver for Mercedes.

He also won the Formula E Championship with the team and it’s easy to understand why he’s highly rated within the team.

However, it’s hard to say that De Vries should have been given more time with Daniel Ricciardo sitting in the wings waiting to race.

The Australian is under no pressure to perform for the rest of the year given how poor the car currently is.

Ricciardo will wonder if there’s a seat at Red Bull becoming available in 2025 and that will be his aim from now on.