Shovlin: Maybe we still regret letting De Vries go

In the Netherlands, the book “Max and Nick” is published, dedicated to two Dutch racers – Max Verstappen and Nick de Vries. As the subtitle suggests, it tells how the reigning world champion helped his compatriot get into Formula 1.

The book was written by sports journalists Ivo Pakvis and Shtiin Köris, who decided to tell how the fate of these two racers developed differently. While Max made his World Cup debut at the age of 17 and has now won two titles at the age of 25, Nick has recently turned 28 and is just getting ready for his debut season in F1.

While working on the book, the authors communicated with many authoritative experts, analyzing the obvious differences between the two horsemen, so they tried to find some common features. And if much has already been written about the Verstappen phenomenon, then De Vries first became the hero of this kind of research, published in a separate book.

Given that Nick has worked as a reserve driver for Mercedes in previous years, it’s only natural that Andrew Shovlin, the team’s lead race engineer, stepped in as one of the experts. He believes that De Vries has all the qualities to succeed in Formula 1, and does not even rule out Nick switching from AlphaTauri to Red Bull Racing in the future.

“I have no doubt that Nick is capable of winning races if he’s in the right team, where he gets a fast car,” Shovlin’s commentary reads in the pages of a new book. Whether he can become world champion depends on him. Nick has less time for that given his age, but compensates for this with a wealth of experience.

We agreed that if he doesn’t find a place in the Mercedes team, he can accept a better offer. And now we can still regret letting Nick go. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in the main team of Red Bull and we have to compete with him. I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens in the next 12 months.

He fitted in well with our team, but the riders cannot be held by force. For Mercedes he was the perfect test driver and reserve driver. If we had the chance to leave him on the bench and call upon his services if necessary, we would have done so. But then we would prevent him from achieving his dream…

What we have done now may be useful to us in the future. The likelihood of Nick wanting to return to our team depends on how well we’ve treated him over the years. There are no obstacles stopping Nick from ever getting behind the wheel of a Mercedes.

In general, it seems strange to me that there were few people who wanted to have such a rider available to them. Only Red Bull decided to invite him, after analyzing his level. The fact that he has not been given a place in any other team is partly due to political motives, I think.

Nick de Vries has proven time and time again to be a master of the art and get things done: in 2019 he won the F2 title, in 2021 he became champion of Formula E and last year he received an unexpected opportunity to debuting in Formula 1, earned points in the first race.