Who is Nyck de Vries? Profiling the driver who's got the Formula 1 world talking

At 27-years-old, it's almost unimaginable that Nyck de Vries is yet to secure a full-time Formula 1 seat. The young Dutchman has been knocking on the door for almost a decade, but it seems that his name and the 'ooh aah' around it is the only thing people are excited about.

That all changed at the recent Italian Grand Prix when he got the call to race for Williams, filling the vacant seat left by Alex Albon after appendicitis took him out of contention. It was the break De Vries needed, and he took full advantage of the opportunity. It's unlikely he'll get a second run in Singapore on 2 October, by which time Albon would be fit as a fiddle, but he's on standby.

Yet, while everyone is gushing over his ninth-place finish in Italy, just who is Nyck de Vries? And does he have the credentials to suggest that he is worthy of an F1 seat?

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All smiles ??#WeAreWilliams #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/wLs8m2oOr3

The second (Dutch) coming?

After Max Verstappen, De Vries became the first Dutch driver to compete in an F1 race in a very long time. And funny enough, the two started the Italian GP alongside one another, with the defending champion in seventh and the 'new kid' in eighth.

Be that as it may, De Vries was born in the city of Sneek on 6 February 1995, and by the age of 11, he was competing in the 2006 Dutch championship ICA Junior. That year, he finished his first competitive season of karting in third place, immediately catching the eye of potential sponsors.

Four years and several championship victories later, McLaren signed the youngster to their Young Driver Programme from 2010 to 2019. In October 2016, he also signed with the Audi Sport