Nyck de Vries swaps seats with Louis Deletraz to join Racing Engineering

2017 is De Vries’ first season in Formula 2 and he has been one of the stars of the season, securing his maiden win at Monaco and securing three further podiums. This has left him in eighth place in the Drivers’ Championship. By contrast, Deletraz has had a more disappointing rookie campaign, taking only 1 point away from 14 races.

“Perhaps this move is a surprise in the middle of the season, but I am very excited to join Racing Engineering from Spa onwards,” said De Vries. “We have been in touch since 2015 and it is great to finally get the chance to work together as they have a very high level of professionalism and a great track record. I hope we will be able to turn around their momentum and score the successes they have always had.”

The President of Racing Engineering, Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón, also expressed how excited he was to have De Vries join the team: “We have been closely following Nyck’s progress through the junior categories and have been in close contact for several seasons now, he is an exceptional young man, very professional and dedicated,” he said.

“The entire Racing Engineering team is excited to see him in our car and with two venues coming up now where we have historically celebrated fantastic results, I am very optimistic that we will see Nyck cross the finish line as one of the first on the track.”

As Racing Engineering has struggled so far in 2017, it will be very interesting to see how De Vries will fair in less competitive machinery in the second half of the season. Likewise, it will also be interesting to see if Deletraz can make any indent on the front runners this season like De Vries has already done, and if he can challenge his new team mate, Sergio Canamasas, who is a veteran of the series.