Nyck de Vries made his F1 debut, which will not be easy to forget, at the Italian Grand Prix last Sunday. De Vries finished ninth and scored two world championship points for Williams Racing. Not only his zeal but also the helpful words of the reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, aided him.

Max Verstappen, meanwhile, secured another victory at the Italian Grand Prix, the fifth in his streak.

Max Verstappen motivates Nyck de Vries before the race

Nyck de Vries only expected an FP1 appearance for Aston Martin last weekend. But just before the FP3 session, a surprising turn of events took place. He was called by Williams Racing to replace Alex Albon, who was suffering from appendicitis.

In the race, fate placed Nyck de Vries and fellow Dutchman, Max Verstappen, side by side, as eighth and seventh on the grid, respectively.

Verstappen revealed the words of advice he had shared with Nyck before the race: “First of all, enjoy it and don’t think about it too much, don’t stress about it too much.”

“I remember my first one…it happens so quickly everything, but I think more probably if you just tell yourself we’ll see what happens instead of really stressing out – ‘I need a good start, I need a good first lap’. You shouldn’t think about that and I think he handled everything really well of course.”

“But yeah, it’s nice. We know each other really well so it was just a quick little motivation speech.”

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After the race, Max Verstappen was seen smiling proudly at his fellow Dutchman. Noting his stellar debut performance, it appears Nyck de Vries took Verstappen’s words to heart.

The aftermath of Nyck de Vries’ debut

Nyck de Vries has previously won the 2019 Formula 2 Championship title, as well as last year’s Formula E championship. But this is the first time he is tasting the Formula 1 air. After the race, he told the official F1 website, “The whole experience, from yesterday until now, has just been a dream.”

De Vries certainly gave a dream-like performance for his first F1 race. Doors might have opened up for him for an F1 future, as remarked by his peers.

Jost Capito says the ball is in Nyck’s court if he wants a seat at Williams next year.

“No, there is nothing else he has to do,” Capito said. “He did an absolutely outstanding job and I rate him extremely highly. That’s why my expectations are extremely high and he overfulfilled these.”

Mercedes driver George Russell also commented on de Vries’ performance, “He obviously did an excellent job . . . he was always one of the very best and there’s no doubt he deserves another place in Formula One.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff also spoke highly of de Vries, “I think, what else should he do in terms of performance than what he has shown today? No training, [he] jumped in a car that he hadn’t driven, straight into FP3. Yeah, it showed what he’s capable of doing.”

As for Nyck de Vries himself, the overwhelmed Driver of the Day said post-race, “Any time you get a chance to drive a Formula 1 car it is a kind of job interview and an audition.”

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In that case, Nyck de Vries aced his job interview for 2023. As doors open up for de Vries and Max Verstappen steers straight to another championship title, the future seems decidedly Dutch.