Outside of Formula One, De Vries has competed in Formula E since 2019–20 and in the FIA World Endurance Championship since 2018–19. De Vries has also competed in the European Le Mans Series and Super Formula.
Early and personal life
Hendrik Johannes Nicasius de Vries was born on 6 February 1995 in Uitwellingerga, Friesland, Netherlands.[1]
Junior racing career
Karting
In 2008, de Vries won the WSK World Series for the KF3 category, as well as the German Junior Championship. In 2009 he retained both his German Junior and WSK World Series titles, as well as winning the European KF3 Championship. In September he won the 2010 Karting World Championship. He also won the World Championship in 2011.
Formula Renault Eurocup
2012
De Vries in 2012
In 2012, de Vries switched to single-seaters, being given a cockpit in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 at R-ace GP. De Vries achieved his first podium finish at his debut race in Alcañiz with a second place, and he managed to repeat this result at the Hungaroring. De Vries finished the season in fifth place, beating all of his teammates. In addition, de Vries took part in several races of the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC, in which he managed a victory at his home track in Assen. He was on the podium four times in eleven starts in the series and ended up tenth in the drivers' standings.
2013
The following year, de Vries switched to Koiranen GP for his second season in the series. He won one race each at the Hungaroring and the Circuit de Catalunya and again ended the season in fifth place in the championship.
2014
In 2014, de Vries stayed with Koiranen and competed in his third season of the Eurocup. He won six races and finished on the podium in 11 of 14 races. With 254 points to 124, he convincingly beat the runner-up Dennis Olsen in the championship. In addition, he took part in the entire Alpine Formula Renault season. He won 10 out of 14 races and only failed to make the podium twice.
De Vries took part in the GP3 Series in 2016 in with ART Grand Prix. He scored his first podium at the Red Bull Ring with a third place, then obtained his first pole in Budapest. It wasn't until the second race at Monza that he took his first win, a result he replicated at the Yas Marina Circuit at the end of the season. He finished sixth in the championship, behind his teammates Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon, who became champion and vice-champion respectively.
FIA Formula 2 Championship
2017
In 2017, de Vries switched to the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Rapax.[2] He achieved his first win in the Monte Carlo sprint race and scored a further three podium finishes before the summer break.[3] Before the round at Spa-Francorchamps De Vries switched to Racing Engineering, with whom he scored a second place at that very round. He ended his season seventh in the championship, placing second-highest of all rookies.
For the 2018 season, de Vries moved to partner Sean Gelael at Prema Racing.[4] His season started slowly with just two podiums from the opening third of the season putting him a fair way behind his title rivals. De Vries' first victory of the campaign in the sprint race at Le Castellet was followed by a point-less round in Austria and two finishes outside the top five in Silverstone.[5] Following that however the Dutch driver's form improved, winning the feature races in Hungary and Belgium respectively.[6][7] However, even with his sixth podium of the season in the Sochi feature race, de Vries was unable to finish in the top three in the standings, being beaten by Alex Albon and Lando Norris by ten and 17 points respectively.
In 2019, de Vries remained in Formula 2, returning to his former team ART Grand Prix alongside 2018 GP3 vice-champion Nikita Mazepin.[8] His season started in strong fashion with a podium in Baku and a sprint race victory in Barcelona.[9] He followed that up with a win from pole position in Monaco and took the championship lead by winning the main race at Le Castellet.[10][11] A pair of third places at the Red Bull Ring and a podium each in Silverstone and Budapest extended De Vries' advantage,[12] and following another pair of thirds in Monza he had put one hand onto the trophy. After his fourth and final victory of the season, which came at the penultimate round in Sochi, de Vries was mathematically crowned Formula 2 champion.[13]
During the test week prior to the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans the ACO officials prohibited TDS Racing x Vaillante driver Philippe Cimadomo from starting. Due to his reserve role for the Toyota Hypercar team, de Vries was already at the circuit and was asked to step in.[19] The Dutch driver ended up finishing fourth in class alongside Mathias Beche and Tijmen van der Helm, setting the fastest top 20 average laptime.[20]
On 20 November 2023, de Vries was announced as one of the primary drivers for the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar, replacing the outgoing José María López.[21] Having qualified second for the season-opening race in Qatar, de Vries managed to take his first overall WEC victory at Imola, profiting from an impressive stint by veteran teammate Kamui Kobayashi.[22][23] de Vries would finish second overall at Le Mans taking his first podium at Le Mans.
For the 2020–21 season, de Vries continued at the renamed Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team with Stoffel Vandoorne.[26] He qualified on pole for the first race of the season-opening Diriyah ePrix double-header, proceeding to lead every lap en route to his first-ever victory in the series. Before the second race De Vries did not take part in qualifying as Mercedes and Venturi Racing, who were both using Mercedes powertrains, were suspended from the session following the crash of Edoardo Mortara during a practice start procedure. In the race, the Dutchman finished ninth after penalties were issued to multiple cars. At the round in Rome De Vries failed to score points in both races, having collided with his teammate Vandoorne and Sam Bird respectively in the two races. De Vries achieved his second victory of the season in Valencia, where he was one of the only drivers to not run out of usable energy before the end of the race.[27]
Following two rounds in which he only amassed a total of two points, de Vries fought for victory in both races of the London ePrix and finished in second place in both races, thus taking the lead in the championship before the final round.[28] In the first race in Berlin he did not score any points but managed to maintain his lead in the standings. Having qualified 13th for the final race of the season, de Vries was given an early advantage when title rivals Mitch Evans and Edoardo Mortara collided at the start, and fellow contender Jake Dennis was involved in a crash shortly after the restart.[29][30] De Vries finished the race in eighth place, thus winning his first ever World Championship in Formula E.[31] The Dutchman ended the campaign with a total of two wins, four podiums and 99 points, seven ahead of vice-champion Mortara.
2021–22 season
De Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne remained with Mercedes for their swansong season in Formula E.[32] De Vries won the first race of season 8 in Diriyah, and got pole the next day, but finished in 10th, and ended the championship in 9th with 106 points.[33] De Vries left at the end of the season, securing a contract to compete in Formula One.
In December 2020, de Vries and fellow Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver Stoffel Vandoorne performed their first Formula One test for the Mercedes team at the season-ending Young Driver Test.[37] The following year he became one of the two reserve drivers for the team, again partnered with his Mercedes-EQ teammate Stoffel Vandoorne.[38]
For the 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix, de Vries was appointed as Lando Norris' replacement at McLaren in case Norris was unable to race, as the English driver was suffering from food poisoning after a meal on Thursday. De Vries even had a seat fitting with the McLaren car. However, Norris recovered the next day and was able to complete the Grand Prix.[43]
Race debut on loan to Williams (2022)
At the Italian Grand Prix, de Vries took part in first practice in place of Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin.[44] De Vries then replaced Alex Albon at Williams for each of third practice, qualifying, and the race, after Albon suffered appendicitis and was ruled out on Saturday morning.[45] He managed to advance to Q2 and qualify thirteenth, ahead of his Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi. He started eighth after penalties were applied to multiple drivers.[46] He finished the race in ninth position, scoring points on his race debut and was rewarded with Driver of the Day by fans.[47]
He qualified 15th making Q2 for the first time at the Australian Grand Prix but he retired from a chaotic race after Logan Sargeant crashed into the back of him taking both cars out and he was classified in 15th. De Vries crashed in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He qualified last for the sprint and finished the shorter race 14th. He crashed out of the main race on lap 10 after clipping the wall at turn 5. In both the races that he retired from, teammate Yuki Tsunoda had scored points putting pressure on de Vries for his results to improve.
De Vries qualified 15th in the Miami Grand Prix, out-qualifying teammate Tsunoda for the first time that year. In the race he drove into the back of Lando Norris' McLaren at the start ending his chance of a good result. He finished the race 18th and 24 seconds behind Tsunoda.
De Vries qualified 12th in Monaco and finished the race where he started in 12th but he beat Tsunoda for the first time that year in a race. De Vries qualified 14th in Spain out qualifying Tsunoda for the second time that year but he finished the race in 14th behind Tsunoda. De Vries Qualified and finished the race 18th in Canada whilst coming under criticism for forcing Kevin Magnussen off the road on lap 35.
De Vries qualified last for the Austrian Grand Prix but qualified 14th for the sprint and finished the shorter race 17th. He finished 17th in the main race after receiving a 15-second time penalty for numerous track limit infringements and another 5-second penalty for forcing Magnussen off track for the second race in a row. After the race, Magnussen said De Vries was driving like a desperate man. De Vries qualified 18th and finished 17th and last at the British Grand Prix. With 10 races of the season completed, de Vries was 20th and last in the drivers championship having scored 0 points whilst teammate Tsunoda had scored 2 points.
Two days after the Silverstone race, de Vries was released by AlphaTauri with Daniel Ricciardo replacing him for the rest of the season.[50][51] Prior to his dismissal, de Vries was criticised for his performance, most notably by Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.[52][53] The decision to dismiss De Vries halfway through his rookie season was criticised by several Dutch and Formula E racing drivers.[54]
^De Vries selected the number 21 as his personal driver number, per FIA regulations; at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, he competed using the standard reserve number 45 for Williams.
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