F1 News: Nyck de Vries Spotted With Mercedes Chief After Shock AlphaTauri Firing

Nyck de Vries has been spotted having lunch with Toto Wolff after he was dropped by AlphaTauri.

F1 fans have been raising their eyebrows as Nyck de Vries has been spotted enjoying lunch with Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff.

This comes after the Dutch driver was abruptly dropped by AlphaTauri to be replaced by Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo. 

De Vries was in demand for a permanent F1 seat after his impressive debut at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix when he stepped in last minute for Alex Albon at Williams and scored two points. It was later confirmed that the Former Formula E champion had signed with AlphaTauri for 2023. 

Unfortunately, the Dutch driver has struggled to make his mark during the first ten races of the season and is just one of two drivers to not put any points on the board. 

After he was dropped from the team this week, eagle-eyed fans spotted de Vries out for lunch with Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff. This won't be a huge shock to some as de Vries was the Mercedes reserve driver from 2021.

Fastest Pitstop shared the photo to Twitter of the pair, they wrote:

"Toto Wolff and Nyck de Vries were seen at a café in Monaco today."

Toto Wolff and Nyck de Vries were seen at a café in Monaco today. 👀#F1 pic.twitter.com/aodVcPjgxT

— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) July 12, 2023

One fan joked that it could have all been a master plan by Wolff to get information on the competition. They wrote:

"I believe Nyck was sent on a secret mission by Toto to collect info about Red Bull and now he will spill the tea"

Another fan leant into recent rumours of Mick Schumacher replacing Logan Sargeant at Williams. They commented:

"They'll need someone when Mick [Schumacher] replaces Logan [Sargeant]."

They'll need someone when Mick replaces Logan.

— Kevin Wey (@kwey24) July 13, 2023