De Vries ‘should be proud’ of his FP1 debut

Nyck de Vries has been told he should feel “proud” after making his debut in a Formula 1 weekend in Barcelona.

The Dutchman took part in FP1 of the Spanish Grand Prix in line with a new regulation by the FIA that states each team must provide two sessions to a driver who has competed in two or fewer races.

Williams took up that option in Barcelona with De Vries replacing Alex Albon for the first practice session of the weekend.

His limited run, which George Russell has criticised for not giving the young drivers a chance to perform, has drawn praise from Williams’ head of vehicle performance Dave Robson who said the 27-year-old “didn’t put a foot wrong.”

“He completed the engineering programme that we needed him to do, which for us was the most important bit,” Robson said, as reported by the Race.

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“Not only did he not have a huge amount of time in the simulator, we gave him the prime [hard] tyre for his first run, which we knew would be a little bit difficult, but at least it gave him the opportunity to do a good number of laps.

The team can confirm that @nyckdevries will take part in FP1 on Friday, fulfilling one of the two mandated young driver sessions this season

— Williams Racing