Former F1 driver Nyck de Vries has revealed how McLaren’s ‘success’ with Lewis Hamilton paved the way for his own racing career.

The seven-time world champion is often credited as being the inspiration for the majority of drivers coming through F1’s junior ladder, and while Nyck de Vries is no exception, it runs a bit deeper for him than just motivation.

Before the introduction of driver programmes in the 2000s, teams would rely on commercial ties, talent scouts and feeder series results to assess the next crop of F1 drivers.

However, as detailed by de Vries, Lewis Hamilton’s immediate leap to success with McLaren during the early portion of his career saw a shift occur, with teams putting a bigger onus on developing talent in-house.

Nyck de Vries reveals how ‘handy’ Lewis Hamilton’s ‘success’ with McLaren was to his own career

In a recent interview with Motorsport Magazine, the former AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) driver highlighted how Hamilton’s rise through the ranks of McLaren’s driver development programme spurred the team to sign him in 2010.

“Lewis made his F1 debut with McLaren in 2007, and that was a big success story, especially when they won the F1 world championship together in 2008,” the 31-year-old began. “However, F1 at that time wasn’t as financially buoyant as it is now.

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“A couple of teams were making money; the majority were actually losing money. So there wasn’t much money available to invest in junior driver programmes, but I think McLaren’s success with Lewis reignited other F1 teams’ interest in investing in young talent.

“That timing was very handy for me because that was the exact moment when I was starting to win and kind of dominate in karting.”

De Vries remained on the books at McLaren until 2019, the same year he won the Formula 2 title. Further opportunities came through Mercedes’ acquisition of the Dutchman for their Formula E team. Another title came in that category two years later.

Unfortunately, the Friesland-born driver would have to wait another two years to get his chance in the pinnacle of motorsport, only for his dreams to be dashed as he was replaced by Red Bull’s top brass after just 10 rounds of racing.

Of course, that was not the end of de Vries’ exploits on the race track. He returned to the Formula E grid with Mahindra, and even went on to secure victory in the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota, alongside his reserve driver duties for the McLaren F1 team.