Nyck de Vries cleared in €250 loan affair

Nyck de Vries is finally free of his extra-sporting worries. The Dutchman was cleared in the loan affair, a dispute between him and the Investrand investment fund of Jeroen Schothorst, a real estate magnate in the Netherlands. The judgment was handed down this Saturday by a court in Amsterdam. 

As a reminder, Nyck de Vries was accused and sued by Jeroen Schothorst, who believed that the Dutchman owed him money following his debut in Formula 1 with Williams last year, then with Alpha Tauri in 2023. The driver born in 1995 had borrowed 250 euros from Schothorst's investment company, Inventrand, in order to finance his 000 season of Formula 2 at Prema.

According to the daily Het Financieele Dagblad, the agreement included an interest rate of 3% per year and a percentage of future profits in the event of Nyck de Vries joining Formula 1. A loan that he would not have had to repay if De Vries failed to reach F1 by 2022. Except that between the fact that he participated in a Grand Prix with Williams during the 2022 season, that he signed his contract with AlphaTauri for 2023 and that he was employee Mercedes in F1 for the last two years as a reserve and test driver, this had offered a legal opportunity to Schothorst who jumped at the chance.

In the judgment, however, the judge agreed with De Vries on this point by declaring that he had never had an official starting contract. “It is true that he participated in F1 on September 11, 2022 at the Italian Grand Prix, but he did so as a reserve driver, said the judge. “He was not under contract as a racing driver at that time. He was just replacing another driver with appendicitis [Alex Albon, editor’s note]. »

Now free of this matter, Nyck de Vries can fully concentrate on his first season in Formula 1. The rookie has already returned to the track at Imola and Paul-Ricard, with Pirelli tests carried out at Castellet on Friday and Saturday.

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