Nyck de Vries

De Vries reveals UNUSUAL plan after leaving Formula 1

De Vries reveals his new life: from driving to studying

Luis Raya

Saturday 12 August 2023 13:57 Updated: 16:58

Former AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries, following his dismissal before the Hungarian Grand Prix, has unveiled his plans for the remainder of the season after hanging up his helmet.

A couple of weeks ago, former Williams driver Nicholas Latifi announced his departure from motorsport to pursue another dream: business ventures. De Vries, albeit involuntarily, appears to be following in his footsteps and has disclosed his future plans.

"In September, I'm going to take a course at Harvard: Negotiation and Leadership. Now, I have more time and interest in learning other things. I haven't studied in my life, not even completed high school, so I'll allocate some of my time to studying," the former F1 driver confirmed to RacingNews 365.

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De Vries, aged 28, made his F1 debut at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, standing in for Alex Albon due to the latter's appendicitis, and left a lasting impression with an incredible P9 finish.

At the start of 2023, it was announced that the Dutchman would hold the official driver position at AlphaTauri. However, his lacklustre performances – notably slower than his teammate Yuki Tsunoda's – wore down Helmut Marko's patience in just 10 races, resulting in his replacement by Daniel Ricciardo.

"It wasn't difficult," de Vries said of his departure. "I had a lot of support, and it happened very naturally. I've been playing quite a bit of golf since then."

Ricciardo meets expectations

On the flip side, Daniel Ricciardo, who returned to Red Bull as the reserve driver at the start of the season after leaving McLaren at the end of 2022, is living up to expectations according to Christian Horner.

The Australian outperformed Tsunoda in Hungary with a remarkable comeback, and showed his pace again in the sprint race at Spa. Both Horner and Franz Tost have been content with his performances considering the limited time he has had with the car so far.

"I believe he has fulfilled them. Looking at what he did at Silverstone during the tire test, I think expectations changed after that, and he met all those expectations," said Horner.

"What he has brought to AlphaTauri is a tremendous amount of experience and possibly some direction, clearly with the experience he brings as a grand prix winner. The truth is, he has performed very, very well."