Nick de Vries: I have a great chance

On Saturday morning, Nick de Vries was having a cappuccino in a Mercedes motorhome when he was told he would be making his F1 debut this weekend, replacing an ailing Alex Albon at Williams.

The debut proved successful, the Dutchman overtook his partner in qualifying on the first attempt and qualified on his way to the second session.

Dave Robson, Chief Race Engineer: “First of all, we wish Alex a speedy recovery. And we are happy that Nick will make his debut in Formula 1 with our team.

The team responded quickly to the morning news that Nick would be playing for us until the end of the weekend. We quickly prepared a car for him and adjusted the third training program so that he would have a productive time on the track.

Nick did a great job, helped by the experience of participating in Friday practice with our car in Barcelona. He used Alex’s settings and was pleased – it just took a change in the angle of the front wing to adapt the car to his style. After the fines of other riders, he will start in the top ten tomorrow.”

Nick de Vries (13th): “I feel for Alex and hope he gets better soon. I got a great opportunity, but it’s always hard to join right away on the weekend. Overall, I’m happy with how it went, although I feel like I could have done better. Unfortunately on my fastest lap I seriously blocked the tires, otherwise everything went well.

Taking into account the penalties of opponents, I start from a higher position. Today I still have a lot to learn to prepare for the start, but it’s great to have such an opportunity.

Nicholas Latific (16th): “I wish Alex a speedy recovery and hope to see you soon.

Unfortunately on my second attempt I blocked the rubber in the first corner and was unable to finish the lap, but as a result I ended up where I expected. Tomorrow we should be fast on the straights, but we will lose time in the corners. I’ll be fined, but we’ll see how it ends.”