Sir Lewis Hamilton did not take part in the first practice of the French Grand Prix this weekend.
Mercedes announced on Wednesday that the seven-time world champion’s car will be driven by his backup driver Nick de Fries on Friday morning.
It’s all down to the new rules introduced in 2022, but how does that affect Hamilton’s chances of winning Sunday’s race and who is de Vries?
Metro Sports explains it all…
What are the new rules?
New regulations for this season require all F1 teams to field rookie drivers at two practice sessions throughout the year with the aim of giving the next generation of drivers more experience and exposure.
Young drivers taking part in practice are nothing new to the sport, but this is the first time. This means that George Russell will later resign from Mercedes for another driver.
Isn’t it strange that Mercedes does it this weekend?
Yes, this is the third time the team has used this rule this season after Williams let De Fleece go and Red Bull let Juri Vips go at the Spanish Grand Prix.
This suggests that most drivers and teams will wait until the end of the season to carry out their mission.
But a bigger factor here is the possibility of Mercedes actually winning in France, given the recent improvements to the W13 car and the smooth layout of the Paul Ricard circuit should favor Hamilton and Russell.
So while sacrificing training time may prove costly for Hamilton, the Brits are cautiously optimistic about his chances.
“I really don’t know what to expect this weekend,” he said at a news conference on Thursday.
“We are constantly making changes to the car. Hopefully we can find something to help us move forward this weekend, but overall it was a decent race.” [in the past]..
Mercedes are yet to win the race in 2022. Red Bull and Ferrari have emerged as the dominant teams following major regulatory changes for the season.
Who is Nyck de Vries? ??
At 27, de Vries is not what you would call a young driver, so his appearance in these practices is a bit counterproductive, but the Dutchman has been linked to F1 seats for years.
De Fries enjoyed many junior races in McLaren’s young driver program and was supposed to replace Nico Rosberg, who retired shortly after winning the F1 title in 2016, but Mercedes replaced Valtteri Bottas.
He approached Formula 1 again with Williams after defeating Nicholas Latifi for the Formula 2 title in 2019, but the financially backed Canadian eventually won.
Since then, he has been an official test and reserve driver for Mercedes, competing in Formula E team races and winning the 2021 championship.
Who is the new kid on the opposing team’s block?
The aforementioned VIP is likely the next driver from the Red Bull family to move on to F1, but the Estonians have recently been dropped from the show after using racial slurs on live TV in June.
As a result, 20-year-old Liam Lawson is currently Red Bull’s most exciting junior, with the New Zealanders currently sitting 10th in F2 and set to join Red Bull B Team AlphaTauri in the coming years.
Robert Shwartzman, member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, has a very impressive youth career, he won Formula 3 in 2019 and then 4th and 2nd in F2 in the last two seasons, Ferrari We work with the Hearth team, which is powered by .
Outside of the big three teams, the most interesting newcomer to the grid has to be Oscar Piastre, who dominated F2 last year but was not contested by Alpine in 2022.
He will be in F1 next year but who is unknown, Alpine, Williams and McLaren are all associated with a 21-year-old Australian.
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Source: Metro
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