Nyck de Vries will get to drive Lewis Hamilton’s F1 car during the first free practice session of the French Grand Prix.
Mercedes are complying with a new directive issued by the FIA to teams for this season which compels the teams to allow a rookie driver to drive in two Friday pracice sessions during the seaon. The govering body defines a rookie as someone who “may not have participated in more than two F1 world championship races during their career”.
The Mercedes team is letting their drivers decide when to give up a practice session with Hamitlon choosing the upcoming French Grand Prix while Geroge Russell will give up his seat later in the year at a yet to be determined circuit.
Nyck De Vries was a strong condenter for an F1 seat this year being linked with a Williams drive that eventually went to Alex Albon.
He already had a rookie outing with Williams earlier in 2022 at the Spanish GP in May.
Other teams have had to follow the FIA directive as well with Red Bull allowing their since fired driver, Juri Vips, a session in Sergio Perez’s car in Spain.
Once a McLaren protege and Formula 2 champion in 2019 time is runnign out for Nyck de Vries to live his F1 dreams.
He is currently expected to continue in Formula E next year with what will become the Maserati team after Mercedes’ exit and will compliment that with a World Endurance Championship run with Toyota, provided the two calendars allow such a thing to happen.
