Formula 1: Have Red Bull taken away Toto Wolff’s ‘insurance policy’?

Nyck de Vries was once seen as Toto Wolff’s Formula 1 “insurance policy” at Mercedes. Now he is with AlphaTauri. Could he be Red Bull’s next new driver?

The driver lineup for the 2023 Formula 1 season is set, and one of the announcements of change involved Red Bull sister team AlphaTauri.

AlphaTauri announced during the summer that Pierre Gasly would be remaining with the team for the 2023 season, but that didn’t prevent speculation that perhaps he would get out of his deal early if there happened to be a better opportunity.

That better opportunity did come, albeit unexpectedly, when Fernando Alonso announced that he would be leaving Alpine and joining Aston Martin to replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel.

Alpine originally thought that they could simply promote reserve driver Oscar Piastri to take Alonso’s place, but that did not happen, as Piastri had signed with McLaren to replace Daniel Ricciardo and the FIA Contract Recognition Board ultimately ruled in McLaren’s favor.

There were rumors that AlphaTauri would be willing to let go of Gasly if they could sign IndyCar driver Colton Herta to take his place.

But even with Herta unable to attain the necessary points to secure a Super License, AlphaTauri did not rule out the possibility of letting Gasly move elsewhere, provided they could find a suitable replacement.

At Monza, after ex-Red Bull and AlphaTauri driver Alexander Albon was sidelined with appendicitis, Nyck de Vries got the chance to make his Formula 1 debut with Williams, and he impressed just about everybody in the paddock with a ninth place finish, scoring two points. Through the season’s first 16 races, the Grove-based team had only scored four points total.

The 27-year-old Dutchman was reportedly on Alpine’s radar, but he ultimately signed with AlphaTauri, opening the door for Gasly to move to Alpine.

Earlier in the year, fellow Dutch racing driver Tom Coronel stated that he believed de Vries was Toto Wolff’s “insurance policy” in the event that Lewis Hamilton either decided to retire after the 2022 season or not re-sign with Mercedes — whether that meant retiring or moving elsewhere — beyond 2023.

De Vries serves as the reserve driver for Mercedes, and he can often be seen by Wolff’s side during a Formula 1 race weekend. He won the 2019 Formula 2 championship before moving to Formula E with Mercedes and winning the 2020-2021 world championship.

He had long been considered one of the most deserving drivers not yet competing in Formula 1, given the fact that he had accomplished pretty much everything there was to accomplish to prove himself deserving of a seat.

Back in the spring and early summer, when it was rumored that Alpine would loan out Oscar Piastri to Williams to replace Nicholas Latifi, it was believed that de Vries would yet again end up without a seat for 2023, since his name had long been attached to a seat at the Mercedes-powered team.

Now here we are, and de Vries has signed a multi-year contract with Red Bull to compete for sister team AlphaTauri.

While Mercedes have expressed no concerns about de Vries taking knowledge to their bitter rival, could this ultimately come back to haunt them in the long run?

Two-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen is under contract with the team through the 2028 season after signing a massive extension earlier this year, and teammate Sergio Perez later agreed to an extension to remain with the team through 2024.

With de Vries under contract for the next two seasons at AlphaTauri, that could potentially set him up to make the move to the top team in 2025. Just try to envision the Orange Army at that point.

And what happens when Hamilton decides to hang it up? Is Mick Schumacher, who recently signed with the team as their reserve driver after losing his seat with Haas, the answer?

Let’s also not forget that, before Verstappen won the 2021 Formula 1 world championship, Mercedes took pride in letting fans know that de Vries was the first Dutch world champion, having won the 2020-2021 Formula E title.

Red Bull, of course, corrected them, accurately stating that it was actually 2018 Motocross world champion Jeffrey Herlings.

Time will tell if both the second and third Dutch world champions end up on the same team, but for the time being, it doesn’t look at all likely that de Vries is going to end up at Mercedes in the near future, even if Hamilton retires within the next few seasons.