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Nyck de Vries’ journey through the modern motor sport ecosystem has been neither smooth nor conventional, for he clawed his way to Formula 1 via talent, charm and graft; he shone brilliantly but fleetingly; he was swiftly and unceremoniously rejected by it; then he found not only success but also glory elsewhere. First he was jettisoned by McLaren – despite having been identified by that team’s bigwigs Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh as a prodigious young talent and despite having won multiple karting and feeder series championships – and he was later discarded by AlphaTauri after just 10 grands prix, a timeframe that many commentators at the time regarded as unfairly brutal and brutally unfair. I was one of them.

Yet perhaps the single most impressive aspect of de Vries’ career is that every apparent dead end has somehow become another road ahead. His life story is not therefore one of failure interrupted by success, or even of success flecked with failure, but of a roller-coaster pilgrimage fuelled by unshakeable ambition, burning resilience and indefatigable resourcefulness. Rarely have I seen such determination packed into such a compact, wiry, lissome, albeit powerful frame. For the record, he stands just 5ft 5in (1.68m).

Young karting champion poses with trophy and helmet. — Winner of the Karting World Championship in 2010, and Nyck de Vries repeated the feat in ’11

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“I grew up in a family in which racing was a passion – my father’s passion specifically, I should say. He [Hendrik Jan de Vries] was an amateur racer. He raced Renault 5 Turbos, Renault Spiders and Formula Renaults, and when I was born [in February 1995] he was quite soon very keen to share his passion with his son and to continue to live his racing dream through me. So he bought a go-kart for me when I was five years old, and I first drove that go-kart on the parking lot of one of his car dealerships, because his business was selling Renaults. So I never really had a chance to consider anything other than racing as a career, because I grew up with racing. Dad’s was a decent business, but obviously it couldn’t provide the earnings that would finance a trajectory to F1. With our resources we were able to do karting. We didn’t have the money to fund me in formula cars, no, but we had the passion and the background, which was and is important.”

Blue Lucozade-sponsored single-seater racing car taking a corner. — Racing in Formula Renault 2.0, 2012

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That distinction matters. Motor sport grandees have often liked to tell themselves that ability rises naturally to the surface, but the truth is more complicated: ability requires opportunity, and opportunity requires resource. De Vries’ career therefore had to be built on something other than money. It was duly assembled by commitment, sacrifice and a father’s and son’s willingness to keep pushing even when all the evidence suggested that their task was becoming almost too formidable.

Indeed, even young Nyck’s karting career was not initially the unstoppable march that it would soon become. “At national level we never really excelled. OK, we were always competitive, we were always finishing in the top three or the top five, but we never became Dutch champion or Belgian champion, for example. So I’d say that from age five to age 12 I always considered myself not mediocre but slightly in the background. We were putting in the hours, we were laying the foundations, but we weren’t harvesting. Yet, somehow, once we’d moved onto the European scene, which we might have expected to be a bigger challenge, it turned out to be the opposite. From age 13 to age 16, so from 2008 to 2011, we enjoyed a lot of success [he won the World Karting Championship in both 2010 and 2011].” When telling such stories he uses the word ‘we’ a lot – almost never ‘I’ – and often he means himself and his dad.

Drivers and officials pose with trophies at FIA prize gala. — From left: Yvan Muller, Sebastian Vettel, FIA president Jean Todt, Sébastien Loeb, de Vries, Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels – champions in 2010

Sutton, DPPI

His surge through international karting arrived at precisely the moment when F1 teams were rediscovering the value of investing in young talent, because Lewis Hamilton’s rise through McLaren’s Young Driver Development Programme had provided a compelling example of what could happen when a team identified a driver early and nurtured him with energy and care. “Lewis made his F1 debut with McLaren in 2007, and that was a big success story, especially when they won the F1 World Championship together in 2008. However, F1 at that time wasn’t as financially buoyant as it is now. A couple of teams were making money; the majority were actually losing money. So there wasn’t much money available to invest in junior driver programmes, but I think McLaren’s success with Lewis reignited other F1 teams’ interest in investing in young talent, and that timing was very handy for me because that was the exact moment when I was starting to win and kind of dominate in karting.

FIA Formula 2 podium ceremony with three drivers holding trophies. — de Vries, left, sharing the F2 2018 Barcelona GP podium with George Russell and Lando Norris

DPPI, Getty Images

“So there was a lot of interest in me from various F1 teams and F1 driver management groups at that time. I’m not exactly sure how my first meeting with McLaren was organised but I remember that it was in 2009, and, because I’d raced in one of the kart teams that Lewis had raced in before, the connection was probably made via Lewis’s dad [Anthony Hamilton] and Martin Whitmarsh [the McLaren team principal]. We were delighted to sign with McLaren and we decided to work with McLaren on mapping out my future. A year later Ron Dennis [McLaren chairman] began to take an interest in my career development, too.”

McLaren represented not only a backer but also a bridge between talent and destiny. For a driver from a normal family, that support was transformational. It enabled de Vries to climb the traditional ladder through Formula Renault 2.0, Formula Renault 3.5, GP3 and Formula 2: the essential proving grounds in which so many hopefuls either establish themselves or disappear.

Renault Sport single-seater racing through a sweeping corner. — A win and a fourth place in A win and a fourth place in Formula Renault 2.0’s opening two rounds at Aragon in 2014 was the start of a championship-winning season

DPPI

“I’d say that 70% of my costs were covered by McLaren, which was great, because without that I wouldn’t have been able to do all those feeder series. But after McLaren’s F1 World Championship success of 2008, with Lewis, things began to decline for them a bit, a few of their sponsor-partners began to leave, and F1 wasn’t yet enjoying the commercial explosion that it’s enjoying today. As a result it became less straightforward for an F1 team, even a big and famous one like McLaren, to be a profitable franchise. So their focus inevitably shifted to different areas – like F1 car performance, quite understandably – and putting money into a young driver wasn’t seen as a priority.

“I grew up in a family in which racing was a passion – my father’s passion specifically”

“Then, as the years rolled by, Martin left [in mid-2014], Ron left [in late 2016], and eventually the financial support that I’d always had from McLaren came to an end. It didn’t mean the end of our relationship, because we continued to work together for two more years – and actually I’m doing some work for them again now, as it happens, which is great – but I obviously had a tough time after I lost McLaren’s financial backing. So those were challenging years, character-building years, because now I had to fight my own battles.”

Formula 2 champion celebrates with the 2019 championship trophy. — From left: Formula 2 title winner, 2019

DPPI, Getty Images

For many drivers, that would have been the point at which the dream began to fade. A driver can win races, impress engineers and demonstrate genuine potential, yet still find himself or herself without the budget required to continue. De Vries’ career was a case in point and he duly entered a period during which survival became the immediate objective, and F1 – once his sole focus – began to look increasingly unreachable.

“I understood very quickly that, without McLaren’s financial backing, my path to my ultimate goal – F1 – had suddenly become a lot longer than I’d anticipated. In the winter of 2016 to 2017, for example, I had nothing lined up, nothing at all. I’d tested for Audi in DTM in December 2016 and that looked like it was going to go ahead, and I actually thought I was going to end up going in a touring cars direction. But then Audi withdrew from the World Endurance Championship and suddenly they had plenty of ex-WEC drivers available to fill their DTM seats, so that ended that possibility.

Mercedes Formula E car racing on a street circuit. — Another title arrived in 2021, racing for Mercedes in Formula E – with de Vries taking the crown in the first of a season-ending Berlin double-header

LAT Images

“Then Ferrari reached out because they wanted a replacement for Gianmaria Bruni in their WEC team. They organised a shootout at Vallelunga, on my birthday [February 6, 2017] actually, which went very well, and that dialogue went all the way to the point that we exchanged contracts.

“But in the background I was still pushing for an F2 drive, because I knew that F2 should be my priority target, and it wasn’t until late February 2017 that I finally got an F2 seat sorted, with Rapax. I had only a third of the necessary budget but I decided to take a risk, go ahead anyway, and see how it developed. But, obviously, starting a season with only a third of the budget, I mean, you know you’re going to face trouble very soon.

“If you want to excel in anything in life, you need to dig deep and overcome tough obstacles”

“But my philosophy at the time was: if I step away from the F2-to-F1 direction now – and do DTM or WEC or something – I’ll never be able to get back, and at 22 I felt I was too young to give up on my F1 dream. So I continued to look for backing wherever I could find it, and in the end I managed to get backing from [Indonesian fast food mogul] Ricardo Gelael. The following year, 2018, his son Sean, who’s a good friend of mine, raced with me in F2 for Prema, and again the Gelael family helped me out. Then in 2019 I raced in F2 for ART. But those years – 2016, 2017 and 2018 – were very tough. It felt like live or die, and after a while I stopped even dreaming about F1. All I was trying to do – desperately – was find the money to continue in F2. To be honest, the Gelael family saved my career, and I’ll always be grateful to them for that.”

There is a particular kind of resilience required to remain committed to a dream after that very dream has become almost too painful to contemplate. De Vries’ career during those years was not fuelled by fantasy; rather, it was powered by fortitude. He was no longer expecting the straight route to F1 that all junior champions hope for. Instead, he was fighting simply to remain on the road. Nonetheless, when I ask him whether he now looks back on that period and recognises how truly remarkable it was that he was able, without the assistance of a manager, to find the funding to keep his career alive, he is characteristically measured. There is pride, but no vanity.

Red Pertamina Formula 2 car racing around a circuit. — De Vries spent three seasons in Formula 2, 2017-19, finishing fourth as a Prema driver in ’18

DPPI

“I’ll humbly say that I’m proud of it. But I’m also aware that if you want to excel in anything in life, you need to dig deep, you need to overcome tough obstacles and you need to be strong, and I know I’ll have harder battles to fight in the future. But, yes, I’m definitely proud of it and it definitely shaped me. Having said that, I wouldn’t say I was completely alone. I still had my dad, because he was always pushing me, even though he didn’t really know how to get me to F1.”

That final point is revealing. Nyck’s father could and did provide love and encouragement, but rare indeed is the family that can navigate the political stumbling blocks that litter the road to F1. I guess an example of that rarity is the role that Keke Rosberg played for his son Nico, which required the 1982 F1 world champion to provide for his son time, expertise, energy, contacts and money. Or, to put it another way, achieving success in motor sport has long been about finding the optimal blend of speed and circumstance, and de Vries’ arrival at the top level would require both.

When he won the 2019 F2 championship with ART, he had achieved what every aspiring F1 driver is told he must achieve. Yet the reward that often if not always follows F2 success – an immediate promotion to F1 – did not in his case arrive. Was he gutted about that, I wonder? “Not at all. I was realistic about it. I understood that there had been quite a few F2 graduates to F1 recently, so there was likely to be very little opportunity for me at that particular time – and, frankly speaking, if I’d won the F2 championship a bit earlier, rather than in my third year in the series, I might well have been able to force my way into F1 earlier, but for many reasons that didn’t happen. So, actually, my focus in terms of sourcing a drive for 2020 was still on alternatives to F1.”

Williams Formula 1 car races around a circuit. — his dream came true, making his F1 debut in the 2022 Italian GP at Monza

LAT Images, Grand Prix Photo

There is no bitterness in the way he recounts that turn of events – and here we encounter two of the most striking things about the de Vries mindset: he is able to acknowledge disappointment without allowing disappointment to define him, and he is able to pick himself up after a setback and get going again. “But what I did do, F1-wise, was start doing simulator work for Mercedes, which was organised by [Mercedes talent scout] Gwen Lagrue and George Russell, who was already in F1 at Williams. That then led to me winning a place in the Mercedes Formula E team. I had a meeting with Toto Wolff and he was very clear. He made no promises beyond Formula E whatsoever and I felt like that direction was the right step for me at the time. Also, having now moved totally away from McLaren, I was able to embrace Mercedes fully, and I trusted them and I felt that, via my work in their F1 simulator and via my racing in their Formula E team, I was growing into the Mercedes family.”

“I’d accepted that F1 was probably never going to happen for me. Now suddenly it was happening”

The irony is that the detour away from F1 became one of the most important chapters of his development. Formula E was not a consolation prize; it was a championship in which he learned a different kind of racing intelligence, one that demanded precision, adaptability and strategic awareness. It also produced the kind of results that could not be ignored. “You’re being a bit modest,” I venture. “You weren’t merely racing in Mercedes’ Formula E team – you won the Formula E championship in 2020/2021, with wins at Riyadh and Valencia, and you won two more Formula E races the following season, at Riyadh again and Berlin.”

“That’s right, I did,” he replies, allowing himself a bashful chuckle. It is an unusually unadorned remark in response to a question about a major achievement, but perhaps that simplicity is revealing, for de Vries has always been more interested in the work than in the applause. Not surprisingly, he quickly moves on. “Yes – and, which was great, during that time I was given the opportunity to test the Mercedes F1 car, at the end of the 2020 season, in Abu Dhabi, then I was made Mercedes F1 reserve driver for 2021, then I got the opportunity to do three F1 practice sessions in 2022, for Williams in Barcelona, for Mercedes at Paul Ricard and for Aston Martin at Monza.”

Racing driver celebrates on the podium with champagne. — De Vries’ 2021 win in Formula E caught the attention of F1 teams

LAT Images, Grand Prix Photo

Monza was the big pivot, I suggest. “Yes – because Alex Albon got appendicitis, so I was selected to race his Williams.” The circumstances were unusual, perhaps almost cinematic. A driver who had spent years waiting for an apparently immovable door to budge suddenly found one flung wide-open right in front of him when another driver fell temporarily ill. What is more, he delivered: he finished ninth, scoring points on his F1 debut.

Mercedes head honcho Toto Wolff was unstinting in his praise: “What else could he have done in terms of performance than what he’s shown today? He had no training, he jumped straight into FP3 in a car that he hadn’t driven before, and I think that really showed what he’s capable of doing. We perhaps forget how he dominated in F2, and he was absolutely great when he won the Formula E championship.”

“I knew what the Red Bull and AlphaTauri culture was like: swim or sink, hit or miss, all or nothing”

Williams team principal Jost Capito’s summary was briefer but no less glowing: “He did a great job, fantastic in fact, and he so much deserved this chance.”

“It was a big mix of emotions,” says de Vries now, four years later. “I’d done free practice with Aston Martin on the Friday, then the call from Williams came the following morning. Coincidentally, my father was in Monaco that weekend, so when he found out on the Saturday that I’d be making my F1 debut he drove from Monaco to Monza to watch me. When I saw him in the F1 paddock, we both became a bit emotional. It was just a very special moment. We both recognised that at last we were about to fulfil our F1 dream but, in addition to the emotion, I also felt so very grateful for the chance.”

AlphaTauri Formula 1 car riding over a circuit kerb. — By 2023, de Vries was with AlphaTauri in Formula 1 but points were difficult to find – finishing 17th here in Austria. The British GP was next

Hans Lucas/AFP Via Getty Images, DPPI

The image of Nyck’s father driving from Monaco to Monza, fuelled by devotion, pride and hope, is to my mind an almost perfect symbol of their entire journey together: the parent who bought the first kart, believed in his son before there was evidence and arrived just in time to witness their jointly nurtured dream finally become reality. “To be honest, I had my future kind of set out in Formula E and I’d accepted that F1 was probably never going to happen for me, but now suddenly it was happening, via this unexpected gift. I was about to live my F1 dream. Then my debut F1 race went well – I finished ninth – and I was over the moon and on cloud nine if it’s possible to be in both those places at the same time, and I started receiving a lot of really nice WhatsApp messages. But, quite quickly, I also realised that this was my moment to turn this gift into a real shot at my dream, which was F1. In other words, I realised that I had a chance to capitalise. So the enjoyment was actually pretty brief because on the Monday after the race I went back to my laptop and phone and started working.”

“I don’t want to sit here and say we were amazing, or even that we did well, but it all fell into place”

That final sentence tells you as much about de Vries as does any result sheet. Even at the highest emotional point of his career (theretofore) he was already thinking about the next challenge. The F1 dream had arrived unexpectedly, but keeping it alive would require the same qualities that had carried him through every previous setback. “There were only a few 2023 F1 seats left and, although I’d raced well for Williams at Monza in 2022, Williams wasn’t really an option for me because they had American ownership [New York-based private investment firm Dorilton Capital] and they were very keen to run an American driver [Logan Sargeant, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, duly got the drive]. Pierre Gasly wanted to leave AlphaTauri [which he did, joining Alpine for 2023] and Red Bull didn’t really have on their books an obvious successor to take his AlphaTauri seat. So there was an opportunity for me. And, looking back, I can only be grateful for that opportunity, to race for AlphaTauri, and to live my F1 dream.”

The opportunity was real, but F1 is an unforgiving place and the same intensity that allows hard-nosed teams to win world championships can also create a ruthless environment for drivers attempting to establish themselves. “Unfortunately it didn’t work out and it ended prematurely, but not every chapter in life can be successful,” says de Vries with a shrug. “I guess it’s sad for me personally that the one opportunity that I was looking forward to the most ended up being so short-lived, but I have no regrets or ill feelings towards anyone at Red Bull or AlphaTauri. They gave me a chance. Different people have different ways of working, different approaches and different philosophies, and Red Bull and AlphaTauri expect strong performance straight away. That’s their approach, that’s their philosophy, and in my case that strong performance simply didn’t come quickly enough. OK, the AlphaTauri car – the package – wasn’t competitive, so that made things harder, and in addition to that let’s just say that we didn’t have the right chemistry, so it didn’t work out. That’s kind of it. There’s not much more to say.”

Toyota endurance racing car celebrates victory with drivers. — Le Mans 24 Hours 2026 winner for Toyota, with Mike Conway, left, and Kamui Kobayashi driving; it was de Vries’ seventh appearance at La Sarthe

Hans Lucas/AFP Via Getty Images, DPPI

It is difficult not to admire the maturity of that answer, not least because of course there is in fact a lot more to say. Many drivers would feel deeply wounded after losing an F1 seat after only 10 grands prix, especially after spending so much time and effort fighting for the chance to occupy one. De Vries instead chooses perspective. He does not disguise the disappointment, but neither does he allow it to become resentment.

“Say what you like, Nyck, but I really don’t think you were given enough of a chance,” I half ask and half insist.

“Well, you’re entitled to your opinion, but what I’ve said is what I truly feel. They gave me a chance and it didn’t work out. OK, could they have given me a longer chance, and might things have then played out differently? Maybe, but they do things their way, they’ve won many F1 world championships, and it’s worked for them. Do I personally support such an approach? I don’t know. I guess if I was running an F1 team, I’d probably do it differently. For example, I think the Kimi Antonelli example is amazing because it demonstrates a very different approach and philosophy to bringing on and supporting young talent, and that’s the Mercedes way, and it’s clearly working, but there’s not only one road that leads to Rome. So I respect the Mercedes approach and philosophy, and I respect the Red Bull and AlphaTauri approach and philosophy, too. And when my time at AlphaTauri came to an end [after the 2023 British Grand Prix], I was almost relieved to be released from it, in a way.”

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Ten races is a very small sample via which to judge any driver, particularly one entering F1 after years away from the traditional feeder-series-to-F1 conveyor belt. Whether more time would have changed the outcome is impossible to know. It might have done, I suggest. “OK, but if I’m very honest, I’m not sure whether I’d have excelled within that environment anyway, even if I’d been given all 22 races. But I think I knew that, going in. I knew what the Red Bull and AlphaTauri culture was like: swim or sink, hit or miss, all or nothing. I accepted it because it was the only chance for me to fulfil my F1 dream. So I have no regrets, honestly, and I firmly believe that everything in life happens for a reason.”

So, once again, he rebuilt. There is a pattern to de Vries’ career that becomes increasingly clear with every chapter: the setback arrives, the disappointment is absorbed, then the work begins again. “Toyota had been kind of with me from 2020, because when I started informally with Mercedes I also signed a test and reserve driver agreement with Toyota’s WEC team. Oh and, by the way, that’s another example of the great support that Mercedes offered me, to give me the freedom to have a link and an affiliation with Toyota, and they did that because they [Mercedes] believe that racing drivers absolutely need to drive. In other words, if a test and reserve driver gets track time in real cars, not only in simulators, it’s to everyone’s benefit.

Toyota drivers celebrate a Le Mans victory on their car. — From left: Conway, Kobayashi and de Vries, Le Mans 2026; Nyck has been racing Hypercars for three seasons with Toyota

Getty Images, LAT

“So I became a test and reserve driver for Toyota’s WEC team, alongside my Mercedes F1 test and reserve driver duties and my racing for Mercedes in Formula E. I actually did a rookie test in Toyota’s WEC car at the end of 2019 [in Bahrain]. After that I gradually started integrating into the Toyota WEC team and organisation, and it soon became clear that their objective was eventually to promote me to a race seat. And even when I got my surprise chance to race in F1 with AlphaTauri in 2023, they [Toyota] said, ‘Don’t worry, we want the best for you, but if things don’t work out for you in Formula 1 we’ll be ready to welcome you back very happily.’ That kind of support was something I really valued.”

That word, support, appears repeatedly when de Vries discusses the organisations that have mattered most to him. For all the emphasis in motor sport on machinery, technology and engineering excellence, he believes that performance is ultimately a human equation. “Definitely – and when things ended for me in F1, we [de Vries and Toyota] were already in touch, and I knew that I wanted to be working with people like them. I felt that Toyota offered the right environment for me because they offered the support that I value. I think that’s really important. In many high-level sports, every athlete, every player and every driver is so good that the differences are very much in the small details, which include the environment to perform at a top level consistently. I think many sportsmen and sportswomen are good, but the ones that are really good are able to maintain a level of excellence consistently, and a lot of that is dependent on being mentally confident and in a good psychological place.”

That philosophy was rewarded this year at Le Mans, where de Vries finally achieved endurance racing’s ultimate prize. “Obviously, it’s one of the most prestigious races of them all – along with the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indy 500. Every driver knows that from a young age. I’d raced at Le Mans in LMP2 in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 – not for Toyota – so my first Le Mans in the Toyota Hypercar was in 2024, and we came quite close [de Vries finished second, driving alongside Kamui Kobayashi and José María López]. Then, last year, 2025, we weren’t quite competitive enough [de Vries finished fifth, driving alongside Kobayashi and Mike Conway], and this year it happened [alongside Kobayashi and Conway again].”

Mahindra Formula E car racing through a wet circuit. — De Vries won one of the two Tokyo ePrix races in July and was one of nine drivers in contention for the title going into the London finale

Getty Images, LAT

It did indeed happen, but the victory was not straightforward. Few Le Mans wins ever are. Instead, it unfolded as a dramatic story of survival, timing and patience. “It was exhausting, not so much from an energy point of view but from an emotional point of view. It was a real roller-coaster of emotions. For a long time we thought we were out of contention for the win – then, suddenly, with four or five hours to go, a safety car brought the whole field together and it became a sprint finish. I did the penultimate stint, which was the stint during which we took the lead. And when it came to the final stint, I found that I just couldn’t watch the TV footage and I put my phone away. So I went into my driver’s room, I lay on my bed and I stared at the ceiling. Then, just three minutes before the end of the race, I walked to the garage, we were still leading, and we won.”

“Did you cry?” I ask.

“Oh yes, I did, I did. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I was consumed by this absolutely overwhelming feeling, because I knew that these people [Toyota] had supported me for so long, and we’d trusted one another with total mutual commitment through all that time. They say you don’t choose Le Mans; Le Mans chooses you. I 100% want to acknowledge that that’s the absolute truth, because I wouldn’t even call it luck, but everything needs to go your way, to fall into place in the right way, and that’s what happened for us this year. I don’t want to sit here and say that we were amazing, or even that we did well, but rather that it all just fell into place, and I’m so grateful that after many good years and a few bad years, and such a variety of different experiences in racing, I can now look back and say, well, I won world karting championships, I won Formula Renault championships, I won a Formula 2 championship, I won a Formula E championship, I won Le Mans and I raced in F1. So it’s not too bad.”

Le Mans News

Toyota wins closely fought 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours to end Ferrari run

Toyota wins the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours after a closely-fought three-way battle for victory with BMW and Cadillac

14th June 2026

By Dominic Tobin

Few racing careers follow a perfectly straight line; fewer still contain such a remarkable collection of achievements gathered across so many different disciplines. De Vries has won races in karting, Formula Renault 2.0, Formula Renault 3.5, GP3, Formula 2, Formula E, European Le Mans Series and the WEC. He has driven in F1, and his F1 debut was one of the best we have seen this century. He has experienced uncertainty, disappointment and rejection, but also triumphs that most drivers can only dream about. “Racing has been my whole life, I’ve loved it, and I still love it. Even so, I’m only 31, and I feel like I’m only just beginning, so I’m very motivated to keep racing for many years and to try to win a lot more. That’s what good racing drivers do, so that’s what I want to focus on doing for as long as possible, hopefully in WEC and Formula E.”

The most remarkable aspect of Nyck de Vries’ life story may not be that he reached Formula 1, although F1 had always been his dream. It may not even be that he emerged from that brief, bruising experience with his reputation intact and his ambition undiminished, although that, too, was and is both notable and laudable. No, in my view the most remarkable aspect of Nyck de Vries’ life story is that, through every change of direction, every uncertain winter, and every bad day when the sport seemed to be slamming a door firmly shut in his face, he continued to adapt, he continued to learn, he continued to remotivate, and as a result he continued to race. So in other words, the Nyck de Vries story is not about the opportunities he missed, but about the opportunities he created.

CV

Born: 6/2/1995 Friesland, Netherlands

● 2000-11 Karting; twice winner of FIA Karting World Championship (2010-11); signs with McLaren in 2009.
● 2012-14 Moves to Formula Renault 2.0 (R-ace; Koiranen); takes two titles in 2014.
● 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 (DAMS, 3rd).
● 2016 GP3 (ART, 6th).
● 2017-19 Moves to Formula 2 – 7th in ’2017, 4th in 2018, winner in 2019 with ART.
● 2018-20 WEC LMP2, including Le Mans 24 Hours 2019 (15th).
● 2019-22 To Formula E with Mercedes – wins championship in 2021.
● 2020-23 F1 reserve driver 2020-22, F1 debut with Williams in Italian GP (9th). Seat at AlphaTauri for 2023; sacked after Round 10 British GP – best result, 12th Monaco.
● 2023-26 Return to Formula E with Mahindra – best season 2026 (7th).
● 2024-26 Drives for Toyota in WEC Hypercar; wins 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours.

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In September 1905, Hugh Locke King and his wife Ethel undertook a motoring tour to Italy with a plan to see the Coppa Brescia race, subsequently better known as the Coppa Florio. The winner was Giovanni Raggio driving an Itala. The Locke Kings had purchased a 50/70hp Itala car themselves in August that had finished second in the touring class of the Mont Cenis Hill Climb in France. As it had incurred some damage to the bodywork during the event, they had ordered a new body to be made and fitted to the car in Paris, so collection of the repaired vehicle became part of their tour. Both Hugh and his wife were keen early motoring enthusiasts, although on this journey they were beset with mechanical problems and an accident that delayed their arrival in Italy, causing them to miss the race.

In their accommodation the night after the race they met some Italian drivers who had taken part in the event and were recounting their exploits, and enjoyed sharing stories of previous races. There were no English entrants in the Coppa, the drivers mainly French, German and Italian.

Female racer pictured in early Brooklands racing attire — Ethel Locke King led the parade on the circuit’s launch

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“The idea of the course dawned in Brescia after the Targa Florio meeting, as I sat among the owners of the French, German and Italian cars which had been competing,” said Hugh. “In reply to my question why there was not a single English car entered, the reply came quickly and unanimously: ‘You have no practice in racing, no cars with the speed – you would not have had a chance.’ He added ruefully, ‘Poor old England! – the cradle of sports as she used to be called – nowhere. Cars, men, all were ‘made abroad’.”

Hugh Locke King was stung by the comments. The drivers were right. Great Britain had a blanket speed limit of 20mph on its roads and all motor racing was banned. There were also no facilities for testing the few cars that the country produced. Continental countries had embraced motor cars and motor sport far more enthusiastically, literally leaving Great Britain in the dust, something he felt ashamed about. France alone was producing 50% of all the world’s motor vehicles at the time.

Map of Brooklands motor racing circuit and aerodrome layout — Colonel Henry Capel Lofft Holden, a British Army officer, designed the track layout; he’d been chairman of the Royal Automobile Club, 1904-05

Alamy Stock

On their return journey to Great Britain, the Locke Kings discussed the implications of what they had heard and made a plan. Hugh and Ethel could foresee a future in which Great Britain would take a lead in this new sport and they decided that they could be instrumental in bringing this about. Back at home in Surrey, they walked round their substantial estate and decided that a racing circuit could be built on its grounds. As ideas went it was a big one and it was the genesis of what was to become Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit: a remarkably grand vision.

Hugh sought advice in the world of motoring. The secretary of the Automobile Club, Julian Orde, welcomed the idea and suggested that a circular track should be built so that racing cars could always be seen by spectators. He also proposed a narrow track and envisaged that it could cope with maximum speeds of 60mph.

With the Automobile Club supportive, Hugh didn’t hesitate on starting the project and, after Lord Montagu of Beaulieu wrote an article in favour of the project in The Car on July 25, 1906, trees were already being felled on the Locke King estate in preparation for the work to start, although no firm design plans had been drawn up.

In September 1906 Hugh organised a meeting of the leading sporting motorists of the day at his house. Two well-known figures who attended were Charles Jarrott, who was an experienced European open road racer, and SF Edge, who had won the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup for the race from Paris to Innsbruck.

“The terrain lay in a ’swampy, rabbit-infested corner of Surrey’”

The meeting was very positive and, having inspected the possible location for the track, it was proposed that this should be four miles long and wide enough for 10 to 12 cars to drive abreast. After the meeting, Edge said that he would like to book the track as soon as it was finished as he wanted to attempt driving at 60mph for 24 hours. This was duly agreed as it would mean great publicity for the new circuit.

Most of the surrounding land that was to be transformed by the project had been in the Locke King family for generations. It was a quiet area of rural Surrey at the time and the neighbours could not have foreseen the disruption that the building of this motoring amphitheatre would cause, let alone the noise that the circuit would generate when in use.

Brooklands opening day social gathering with dignitaries in formal attire — Dame Ethel, photographed in 1933, was a formidable character, taking over the reins of the Brooklands construction project

Brooklands Museum

Shortly after the meeting that effectively kick-started the building of Brooklands, Hugh appointed Colonel HCL Holden chief engineer and designer of the new motor circuit. He was a prominent member of the Automobile Club and the first chairman of its new competitions committee. He had good technical knowledge and an understanding of high-speed dynamics.

He visited the site on several occasions and explained that the best approach to the design of the circuit was to include banked curves that would enable cars to travel as fast as 90mph. It was a revolutionary approach, but he was certain that the banking would allow cars to maintain maximum speeds without skidding.

Dame Ethel was closely involved in all the discussions; she shared her husband’s enthusiasm for the ambitious project and was to play a crucial part in the development of the track. Hugh also arranged for a distant relative, Ernst, Baron de Rodakowski, to help with the Brooklands enterprise.

Holden’s initial layout plans showed a 2½-mile oval track and estimated a three-month construction period. Rodakowski became the first clerk of the course until his role was taken over by Major Lindsay Lloyd in November 1908. He had helped the Locke Kings with the luxury Mena House Hotel situated at the base of the Pyramids in Giza, which they owned from 1886. During his time as its manager from 1887-96, it gained great prominence among the European social elite.

Much of the engineering needed to be innovative to deal with the terrain of the estate, which lay in a “swampy, rabbit-infested corner of Surrey”. What the track should be surfaced with engendered much debate. A new material, tarmacadam, was deemed to be untested and difficult to roll on the banked surface areas that were planned. Asphalt also seemed to present a problem as it would need the extra cost of a concrete base. After much discussion it was decided that a single layer of concrete to a depth of 6in would be the best option. It could be laid in small sections and made using materials from the local gravel quarry.

“People will view the construction of a racecourse with horror”

A railway engineer, Alexander Donaldson, was engaged to manage the growing number of contractors that would be needed to complete the work as there were considerable challenges faced in the building of what was to be officially called Brooklands (sharing the name of the Locke Kings’ house). Hugh’s first estimate of the budget required for the construction of Brooklands was £22,004, which he felt he could comfortably draw from liquid assets. Donaldson immediately doubled this budget figure when he had finished his first rough estimate of costs.

Things started to move quickly when Messrs Price and Reeves were appointed as main contractors and they soon came back with their own budget figure of over £60,000. Work forged ahead in spite of there being no consensus on what everything would actually cost.

An additional 1500 men employed by Price and Reeves bolstered the team of 500 farm labourers who had started the estate clearance. Most of the work was manual, supported by the use of two light locomotives and about 90 wagons operating on eight miles of railway line that had been laid within the confines of the outline track.

Brooklands circuit construction with steam excavator and railway tracks — A pair of locomotives running on eight miles of rail track assisted the construction of the site

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The look of the estate changed quickly during 1906 as over 30 acres of woodland were felled, 300,000 cubic yards of earth shifted and 200,000 tons of concrete laid. It is no wonder that the Surrey Herald of September 1906 commented, “the people of Weybridge will view the construction of a racecourse in their midst with horror and aversion, and no good can possibly derive from such an institution”.

The scale of the project was immense and it was to prove stressful and detrimental to Hugh’s health. His patriotic vision of a home for motor racing and the provision of testing facilities for the development of British cars was to be one for which he made great personal and financial sacrifices. Without the role that his wife was to play in the circuit’s development, it seems unlikely that Brooklands would ever have been completed.

“Ethel was a furious driver. Everyone got out of her way”

Ethel was definitely the first lady of Brooklands. As Hugh’s health declined, she stepped up from being a partner in the project to overseeing and managing all aspects of the epic endeavour. Aside from the ambitious scale of the circuit construction, there was the rapidly deteriorating financial situation that the Locke Kings had to manage as the ever-growing budget projections threatened certain bankruptcy. In fact, Hugh at this stage handed all these worries to his wife.

Ethel was clearly up to the job and cleverly managed discussions and financial agreements with the banks. Loans were arranged, creditors assuaged as much as possible and, when push came to shove, she did not hesitate to approach members of her wider family to ask for loans or donations to enable her to both service the growing number of loans and pay off debts. Many of the estate’s properties were mortgaged to raise necessary cash. Her approach was firm and when Donaldson’s £43,000 estimate of the cost of building the track was received, Ethel immediately wrote to Rodakowski pointing out the huge increase was unacceptable without discussion. She promptly followed up by calling at Carlton House, Regent Street, the headquarters of the newly formed Brooklands Automobile Racing Club, to speak to him in person. It was the first of a number of terse and often combative discussions between the two.

Ethel had been very hands-on in the management of the estate’s properties and the farms that they owned, and she now also demonstrated a calm and clear head for business. She was a strong, independent character and was respected by the men she had to deal with. As her husband’s health deteriorated, she took the reins on the project, balancing the books and guiding progress on the construction that would ensure the track opened in 1907 as planned.

Drivers in vintage Brooklands race car wearing goggles and helmets — Just days after Brooklands’ opening, SF Edge, at the wheel, staged a 24-hour endurance drive

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She was faced with tough decisions. It became clear when spending was at its highest that she had to consider stopping the construction of the track completely as she and Hugh faced possible financial ruin. The alternative was the brave decision to have faith in their original vision and risk all to complete the ambitious project. This is exactly what she did, and is the mark of a brave, clear-thinking woman without whom the Brooklands estate would have remained without a track that was to foster British motor racing, and then become home to aviation and manufacturing of aircraft critical to both future world wars.

Ethel was born in 1864 and her childhood was spent in Tasmania and Bermuda, where her father had been colonial governor. Returning to England, she met Hugh and was soon to be married to him. They had no children and devoted their time to running the Brooklands estate.

Writer and historian Antonia Scott, in an article for Community Life Magazines in March 2025, said of Ethel: “She was a strong character and a great lover of motor vehicles. You think of her as your classic society lady, but she’s just this incredible woman. She was really pivotal in having the track constructed. She was a forceful woman and very vibrant and generous.”

Brooklands construction workers with horse-drawn carts excavating track site — Early horsepower at Brooklands in October 1906 – 300,000 cubic yards of earth had to be shifted

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Ironically, her husband, Hugh, didn’t enjoy driving and, although he had owned the fourth car registered in Great Britain, he engaged a driver and increasingly relied on Ethel to take the wheel. The year after the visit to the Coppa Florio, Ethel decided to buy a second Itala, which she christened Bambo; it was the car that had reputedly won the 1906 Coppa Florio race. Ethel was the true motoring enthusiast in the marriage at a time when seeing a female driver at the wheel of a car was something of a novelty; to see an Englishwoman on the roads of the continent on their 1905 trip to Italy would be a rare sight indeed. Her great nephew, Dr Frank Hanford, recalled: “She was a furious driver. Frightful. Everyone in Weybridge got out of the way.”

She was one of the first women to fly an aeroplane and very professionally managed what was to become the Brooklands Estate Company, the organisation responsible for the track, airfield and other projects. In name she shared this responsibility with her husband, but his withdrawal from the day-to-day activities and inability to cope with the stress of the huge building project meant that she was firmly at the helm of a much-troubled ship.

Towards the end of 1906, Brooklands Automobile Racing Club (BARC) was formed, made up by a group of distinguished men from the English aristocracy. Under the auspices of what was to become the RAC, the board included the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Northcliffe, the Duke of Westminster, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and Lord Lonsdale. From their offices in Carlton Place, they planned how motor racing would take place for the first time in Great Britain, how races should be run, and how this new circuit was going to be a triumphant demonstration of British endeavour, attracting the best of international cars and drivers. Not completing the circuit on time was not an option at this stage and they, like Hugh Locke King, were also motivated by the thought that the Brooklands circuit could generate significant money from spectator attendances. Plans duly went ahead for an official opening in 1907.

Early 1900s race cars on Brooklands steep banked concrete track — The scale of the banking could be seen from the two shillings and sixpence (2/6) enclosure in summer 1907

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The main outer circuit or oval was approximately 2.75 miles long and 100ft wide, and was to be primarily used for speed testing and record attempts. It featured two huge banked curves: the Members’ Banking (Home Banking) and Byfleet Banking. The banking reached nearly 30ft, with a maximum inclination of around 26.5 degrees that allowed cars to maintain high speeds without slowing down in the corners, assuming the car and the driver were up to this vertiginous challenge.

The Finishing Straight was a separate, additional section, approximately 0.5 miles long, that diverged from the oval at the ‘Fork’ near the River Wey crossing and passed the Clubhouse and grandstands, providing a grandstand finish (a tradition borrowed from horse racing). The Fork was a split in the track where a driver could continue on the outer oval or turn left onto the Finishing Straight. This junction was essential for the handicap races that were the staple of Brooklands.

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The Earl of Lonsdale formally opened the new Brooklands circuit on Monday, June 17, 1907. It was remarkable that the track and the buildings were completed on time. It was testament to Ethel’s focused approach to getting the project finished as planned.

Apart from the track itself, there were facilities to support the racing that had also been constructed. The Clubhouse was the main administrative and social hub of the circuit and housed the clerk of the course’s office and all the necessary facilities needed by race officials. It was also home for the weighbridge and the clerk of the scales office where handicaps were worked out. There were changing rooms for drivers and a viewing stand for the press. With its green dome, it became the BARC’s central feature.

Crowds and vintage cars at Brooklands paddock and pavilion — The green-domed Clubhouse has been central to the Brooklands experience since 1907

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The Paddock area was adjacent to the Clubhouse and accessible via the Competitors’ Tunnel. This was the focus for all the drivers and racing teams as this was where garages, ‘racing lock-ups’ as they were known, and workshops were based.

Various grandstands and enclosures were created for spectators, with areas on Members’ Hill near the Clubhouse and Finishing Straight to accommodate the crowds and provide a good view of the exciting conclusion to races.

At the opening ceremony, the Locke Kings hosted lunch in the BARC pavilion, a relatively formal affair, at which Hugh made a short speech. With business concluded, the assembled dignitaries moved to the Paddock, from where a procession of cars formed into two lines and drove on to the Members’ Banking, led by Ethel driving her husband in Bambo, which she had driven back from Italy. It was most fitting that the first lady of Brooklands took the lead after all the determined hard work she had put into securing the completion of the track and facilities. Her leading the procession was also a powerful statement: a woman was the first person to officially drive a motor car round a lap of Brooklands.

“It was testament to Ethel’s focused approach to getting the project finished as planned”

Prior to the opening, there had been mixed feelings about this behemoth now residing in rural Surrey. It is worth remembering that many still felt that the motor car was going to be a passing fad and the attraction of speed was overrated. The automobile trade, for the benefit of whom the notion of a bespoke testing and research facility was integral to the Locke Kings’ dream, had their doubts about its value and the huge amount of money that had been invested. They were at the time much more interested in selling imported foreign cars as Britain’s offerings really didn’t compare or catch the public’s attention. The press vacillated, and from initial reticence about the venture began to warm to the idea. The locals remained vociferous about the intrusion and the possible noise that would blight their lives once racing started.

Hugh Locke King reflected in his article in the souvenir programme of the circuit’s opening: “The Brooklands Track is open, and if we have been able to do anything to promote the well-being of the new sport and the new industry in this country, the anxiety and risk of this past year will have been amply repaid.” It was an earnest comment; the effort of building this motoring Colosseum, fighting planning battles and dealing with local residents’ complaints had nearly ruined Locke King’s health and finished him financially. Without the leadership and resilience of Ethel it could all have come to naught.

Extract from Brooklands Belles: The Women Racers Who Took on the Men by TJ Hartwell (The History Press, £22.99).

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