F1 | Mercedes, Shovlin: “We might regret losing de Vries”

A Mercedes world champion moving to the unpopular Red Bull? It happened. With Nyck de Vries, 2021 Formula E champion with the three-pointed star, who in 2023 will race his first season as a starter in Formula 1 with theAlpha tauri, effectively entering the Red Bull galaxy through the front door.

And Andrew Shovlin, head of Mercedes' track engineers, the Anglo-German team might even regret having lost the Dutch driver, having failed to place him in a satellite team, nor obviously being able to give him a seat in the official team. According to Shovlin de Vries he has the potential to win GPs and he wouldn't be surprised if he were promoted to Red Bull in the not too distant future.

“We might regret letting him go – Shovlin's words – I wouldn't even be surprised if we see him in Red Bull soon, I have no doubt that De Vries has the potential to win races, if he has the right car in his hands. Due to his age he has less time to become world champion but he has more experience than others. We had agreed with Nyck that we would leave him free to choose the best option if we were unable to place him in another Mercedes-powered team. For us he was valuable as a test and reserve driver, but we couldn't stop him."