Nyck de Vries says he's always been a big fan of his new AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda, underscoring the young Japanese driver's buoyant personality but also his talent and speed.
De Vries' remarkable one-off top-ten finish with Williams in last September's Italian Grand Prix earned the Dutchman a full-time drive in Formula 1, with AlphaTauri signing up the 27-year-old for 2023 as Pierre Gasly's replacement.
De Vries is well acquainted with Tsunoda, having raced against the latter in the FIA Formula 2 Championship and he witnessed back then his teammate's speed and flamboyant style.
"When he was in Formula 2, I was one of his biggest supporters," said de Vries on a recent Beyond the Grid podcast.
"He’s obviously an entertaining young guy and he’s not afraid to speak his opinion. I enjoy watching him.
"He’s very talented and very quick. I’m sure we’ll have a great time together and I look forward to be joining him.
"It’ll be the first time in my career I’ll have a smaller team mate than me, but we still have the same shoe size!" he joked.
As de Vries and Tsunoda undergo their preparations with their team for 2023, they will get to know each other better. But the pair have alteady spent time together in the past.
"We did some bonding already, I think two years ago," said de Vries. "We travelled with Max [Verstappen] once from Austria.
"They had a marketing event near the track at the Red Bull Ring and I was there for a [European] Le Mans race.
"We were travelling back together to Monaco, ahead of the Grand Prix, so we did some bonding together."
On his prospects with AlphaTauri, de Vries believes the sister bull outfit and himself can achieve "great things together".
"AlphaTauri is a sister team from Red Bull, they share a lot of knowledge and resources, so I think the package and the team has a lot of potential if we use those resources to our benefit," he said.
"The team is based in Italy. I’ve spent a lot of time in Italy during my karting time, so it just feels like a very welcoming and nice environment.
"I really believe we can do great things together, but it will require a good winter preparation together to get on top of things, and then we’ll give everything we have to achieve the best we can."
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