Nyck de Vries will replace Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin in FP1 for 2022 Italian Grand Prix.
This is De Vries’ third FP1 session of the 2022 F1 season, having replaced Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton at Williams and Mercedes in the opening FP1 sessions at Spanish and French Grands Prix respectively earlier this season.
De Vries will now replace Vettel at Aston Martin for the opening practice session of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, with the four-time champion then returning to his race seat from FP2 onwards for the rest of the weekend.
Speaking about the decision to let De Vries replace Vettel in FP1 at Monza, Aston Martin Team Principal – Mike Krack is “delighted” to welcome the 2020-21 Formula E champion to the team and having the opportunity of “gaining his perspectives and insights about our car.”
Vettel is retiring from F1 at end of this season and despite having already confirmed Fernando Alonso as his replacement, Krack believes that De Vries deserves a shot in F1 as he added:
“His achievements show that he clearly deserves a shot at Formula One – and, hopefully, this opportunity to get behind the wheel of the AMR22 will allow him to showcase his abilities to the wider world.”
De Vries’ participation is ‘in agreement with Mercedes’ and contributes towards Aston Martin’s requirement to replace each race driver across one FP1 session each with a driver, of whom has completed in one or less F1 races according to mandatory regulations across all teams.
Aston Martin will confirm who will replace Lance Stroll in their remaining unfilled FP1 slot later this season in due course.
Mercedes and Williams meanwhile are yet to replace George Russell and Nicholas Latifi in one FP1 session this season, with their practice replacements yet to be confirmed .
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