{"id":178963,"date":"2025-10-04T13:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/178963\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T13:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:35:11","slug":"sacked-red-bull-driver-returns-as-shock-mclaren-role-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/178963\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacked Red Bull driver RETURNS as shock McLaren role confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Red Bull driver Nyck de Vries has returned to McLaren as a simulator driver, the team has confirmed to PlanetF1.com.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after De Vries posted an image of himself helping the team\u2019s preparations in the sim ahead of this weekend\u2019s Singapore Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>Former Red Bull driver Nyck de Vries joins McLaren in sim role<\/p>\n<p>De Vries made a total of 11 F1 appearances across 2022\/23, making his debut for the Williams team at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutchman\u2019s ninth-place finish at Monza caught the eye of Red Bull, with De Vries signed as Pierre Gasly\u2019s replacement at the AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) junior team for 2023.<\/p>\n<p>De Vries struggled alongside Yuki Tsunoda in the first half of 2023, failing to score a point across the first 10 races before being dropped in place of Daniel Ricciardo.<\/p>\n<p>Now 30, De Vries currently competes in Formula E \u2013 the all-electric series in which he was crowned champion in 2021 \u2013 alongside his World Endurance Championship commitments with Toyota.<\/p>\n<p>F1: A dog-eat-dog world<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/shortest-f1-careers-21st-century\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Revealed: The shortest F1 careers this century in the brutal world of Formula 1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/features\/red-bull-mid-season-driver-swaps-f1-history\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All the mid-season driver swaps Red Bull have made in their F1 history<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/nyck-de-vries-returns-f1-mclaren-test\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported at the time by PlanetF1.com<\/a>, De Vries returned to the cockpit of an F1 car for the first time since his AlphaTauri exit by representing McLaren in a Pirelli tyre test at Paul Ricard last November.<\/p>\n<p>De Vries posted an image of himself to social media wearing a crash helmet in McLaren\u2019s simulator at 2105 UK time on Friday, hours after the end of the day\u2019s practice running in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>McLaren has confirmed to PlanetF1.com that De Vries has been working with the team as a simulator driver since the start of the F1 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>De Vries\u2019 role has seen him return to the team which supported his early rise through the motor racing ranks.<\/p>\n<p>He initially joined McLaren\u2019s junior scheme in 2010, carrying out simulator duties at one stage before cutting ties with the team at the end of 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Zak Brown, the McLaren chief executive, commented at the time that the team agreed to part with De Vries to allow him to pursue opportunities elsewhere given the small likelihood of him graduating to an F1 seat with McLaren.<\/p>\n<p>De Vries eventually joined Mercedes as the team\u2019s official test and reserve driver in 2021, representing the Brackley team \u2013 as well as customer outfits Aston Martin and Williams \u2013 in a number of FP1 sessions across 2022 before his F1 debut with Williams at Monza.<\/p>\n<p>Additional reporting by Mat Coch<\/p>\n<p>Read next:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/christian-horner-f1-2026-prospects-new-team-ownership-prospects-ranked\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christian Horner as F1\u2019s next team owner? Where former Red Bull boss might land in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Red Bull driver Nyck de Vries has returned to McLaren as a simulator driver, the team has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,348,1469,50,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-178963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-mclaren","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}