20 November 2023 , 10:10
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Nyck de Vries will race at Le Mans next year after signing up for the full World Endurance Championship season alongside his Formula E plans.
The Dutchman would have planned to be preparing for his sophomore season in Formula 1 next year, having finally landed a drive with AlphaTauri for 2023. But he was cut after just 10 races by Red Bull, in which he failed to score a single point.
But the former Formula E champion announced his return to that series in September after spending three months away from the spotlight following his F1 axe. And now he has also signed up for the WEC season with constructors' champions Toyota.
He will drive the number seven car alongside Mike Conway and another former F1 racer in Kamui Kobayashi. Toyota will field an unchanged line-up in the title-winning number eight car of Ryo Hirakawa, Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi.
"I am super excited to be returning to endurance racing, especially with Toyota Gazoo Racing," said De Vries. "Endurance racing is something that I have always enjoyed and it is a discipline with incredible momentum at the moment.
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"I was with the team in a different role for a few years but never got the chance to race, so it is great that the time has now arrived, and I want to thank the team for their continuous support and faith in me. I am very much looking forward to sharing car number seven with both Mike and Kamui. They are both very talented drivers who achieved a lot, and I am sure we will make a great team."
The return to a full WEC season for the first time since 2019 comes a year after De Vries had originally planned to rejoin the series. Toyota had planned to sign the Dutchman for this season but he chose instead to pursue his F1 dream when AlphaTauri came calling.
Hopes were high for the former Formula 2 champion, given his impressive one-off debut for Williams at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix. But he failed to score a point and, with pressure mounting, Red Bull cut their losses after just 10 races.
De Vries is now rebuilding his motorsport career in two of the biggest global series outside of F1. His WEC duties will see him race in the famous 24hrs of Le Mans, while he will continue his single-seater career in Formula E with Mahindra Racing.
When that deal was announced, he said: "Life is not a destination, it's a journey. I think when you truly look at it from that perspective it also helps you to kind of reset and look forward. As I said, we're here at the start of a new chapter, something I'm really excited about the project and the perspective it has, and that's what I'm looking forward to."