The F1 world was full of praise for Nyck de Vries, who in his first race in the top flight, as a substitute for the ailing Alex Albon , not only qualified better than his teammate, but also led the Williams to ninth position.
That allowed him to equal Alexander Albon’s best result this year and achieve something Nicholas Latifi hasn’t yet done, scoring points.
However, it was not an easy road, and the images just after the Italian GP race are very clear proof of that. In the video, shared by the official Formula 1 account on its social networks, you can see how the driver asks the team for help to get out of the car, having to be assisted by the pain and jerks he suffered.
“I’m struggling even to… can someone help me or am I alone in the parc fermé? I literally can’t even lift my arms anymore.”
His engineer replied, “I’ll confirm it, I’ll confirm it.” Immediately afterwards, Pierre Gasly approaches de Vries to congratulate him, but does not realize that he needs help, and leaves. However, the story ended well, since in the following image a member of Williams is seen unfastening his pupil’s belts and pulling his arms to help him rejoin.
Video: Nyck De Vries, with problems getting out of the car after the Italian GP
The Dutchman was Formula E world champion last season and has competed in the electric category this year as well, as a Mercedes driver. And while many have defined it as strange that he suffers precisely on a circuit like Monza, it must be remembered that precisely the nature of the track requires heavy braking and staying alert for almost the entire lap.
Asked how he felt after the race, de Vries replied: “Tired. During the race I didn’t sweat much and my heart rate was low, but my arms and shoulders are just tired.”
Although the final result was very remarkable, De Vries did not have it easy. He was forced to get in the car on Saturday morning and have to do FP3 as his only preparation for qualifying and the race. And on Saturday, in the session that decided the grid, he made a mistake with one of the switches on the steering wheel.
The 27-year-old revealed that his team had to make some changes to the car: “Pushing the brake balance switch in qualifying on Saturday, I moved the brake balance back and we basically overloaded the gearbox when I touched the brakes in turn 4”.
“We made some adjustments to the switches and buttons to make sure that if it happened again, the impact wouldn’t be as drastic.”
We must not forget that before Williams called him, he had already contested FP1 with Aston Martin on Friday. And finally, regarding the differences between cars, he commented: “I’ve seen a lot of flyers recently. It was tough, but I think as a team we did very well to prepare and also in terms of priorities.”
“So we didn’t go through any failures or safety procedures. We just focused on what I needed and during the race I still asked how I could do some balance adjustments and they told me what to do. It was a very good dialogue and great communication. They allowed me not to think, just to feel, so they guided me during the race”.
Do you want to read our news before anyone else and for free? Follow us here on our Telegram channel and you won’t miss a thing. All the information, at your fingertips!
