De Vries: Toyota Reunion the “Obvious” Option Post-F1

Nyck de Vries has described his move to Toyota Gazoo Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship as an “organic, obvious” progression following his short stint in Formula 1.

Having served as Toyota’s WEC reserve driver from 2020-22, de Vries was named as part of the Japanese manufacturer’s six driver full-season roster for the new season, joining Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi in the lineup of the No. 7 GR010 Hybrid.

The move followed a brief spell for the Dutchman in F1 with the AlphaTauri team, which came to an end after 10 races when he was abruptly replaced by Daniel Ricciardo.

Speaking to Sportscar365 ahead of next week’s WEC Prologue test and season opener in Qatar, de Vries revealed that he kept in close contact with the Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe organization even while he raced in F1, describing the reunion as a “short step.”

“It’s been nice to be back in the team,” he said. “It feels like coming home to a place I know. Since my first test in 2019 and since I joined [as reserve driver] in 2020, we’ve always had a very good relationship. 

“We were in a really good place, and we left it in a good place when I came to F1, and even in that time, I still stayed in touch with the team. It was really straightforward to come back together. It was an organic, obvious, progression.

“Also, it’s an exciting era in WEC with such a great grid in the top class. To be part of that with Toyota, which has been on top of this class for the past decade, is a privilege.”

At the age of 29, de Vries is by some distance the youngest driver in Toyota’s No. 7 car, eight years younger than Kobayashi and 11 years the junior of Conway.

Having watched Kobayashi and Conway earlier in their careers, de Vries says he has been enjoying hearing their stories, while also hoping that he can contribute something new to the lineup as he takes the place of Jose Maria Lopez.

“They are both great drivers who have accomplished a lot in endurance racing, and at Le Mans,” said de Vries of his two co-drivers.

“I personally enjoy the history of our sport, maybe not 50 years ago, but prior to my era. I remember watching Kamui in Formula 1 and reading about Mike when he was in IndyCar. It’s cool to talk about these things. 

“My sister was a big Kamui fan, she had a t-shirt of his! It’s cool they’ve both been around a long time and have the experience. There’s a lot to share and learn.”

On what he can contribute, he added: “Having fresh blood coming into any organisation will always highlight some areas [for improvement]. I think that’s kind of normal.”

While de Vries says he is “very happy” to be with the WEC’s dominant team of recent times after struggling for competitiveness in F1, he is taking nothing for granted in terms of where Toyota will fit in the pecking order in the Hypercar class.

“In F1, everyone knows they won’t win unless they are in certain cars, but here there’s more equal opportunity,” said the Dutchman. “It’s not like we know the outcome of the race. You can never take anything for granted. 

“The statistics [of Toyota] are great, but we have to see where we are. We can only measure ourselves against the competition, and even though we know what we have done, we don’t know if they made bigger steps than us.”