AlphaTauri Formula One driver Nyck de Vries is facing a lawsuit from a Dutch real estate firm over a 250,000-euro loan used to support his junior career.
The Dutchman managed to find his way onto the grid this year after a brilliant drive at the Italian Grand Prix in 2022 which saw him score points in a Williams replacing Alex Albon who couldn’t race due to illness.
De Vries is one of the oldest rookies in the modern era as he replaces Peirre Gasly who was signed by Alpine.
He won the 2019 Formula 2 Championship and the 2021 Formula e title on his route to the pinnacle of motorsport.
However, de Vries is being sued by Jeroen Schothorst who says the 27-year-old breached agreements relating to a loan in 2018.
Dutch newspaper FD reported that de Vries took out a 250 000-euro loan from Schothorst’s investment company Investrand in 2018 to help secure an F2 deal with Prema.
According to an article from Autosport the Alpha Tauri driver had an agreement which allegedly came charging 3% interest per year and a cut of 50% cut for future from F1 activities.
The agreement was that the loan would be terminated if he didn’t make it to F1 in 2022
However as de Vries drove for Williams at Monza and did multiple FP1 sessions for Mercedes and its customer teams the timing of when de Vries became an F1 driver is in dispute.
De Vries paid the 190 000-euro interest to Schothorst, however, as he did not think last year counted as being an F1 driver he assumed the loan was off as per the agreement.
Scothorst believes that the Dutchman failed to provide the required information about his earnings and contracts during the loan and is requesting those details.
De vries has denied allegations made by Schothorst saying that all the necessary information was provided with regards to his contract.
De Vries lawyer comments
According to De Telegraaf, de Vries lawyer Jereon Bedaux claimed the Alpha Tauri driver had offered to repay the 250 000-euro loan however this was rejected by Schothorst.
Bedaux said in court according to Autosport: “Everything shows that Investrand cannot stomach the fact that de Vries became a Formula One race driver in 2023, and not in the last year of the agreement.”
Bedaux also alleged that de Vries ‘politely declined’ Schothorst’s offer to become his F1 manager.
Schothorst Statement:
Schothorst said in a statement to Dutch media: “Let me first say that I think it is fantastic for Nyck that he has become successful as a Formula One driver and that there will be two Dutch drivers at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix in August.
“We invested in de Vries’ career at a crucial moment and when nobody else wanted to do it anymore.
“We now have different opinions on the interpretation we entered into with each other at the time.
“Things like that happen and as a result we unfortunately cannot escape taking the matter to court.
“We really would have preferred this to be different, but that does not alter the fact that, as a motorsport fan, I wish Nyck all possible success in the continuation of his career.”
A ruling is said to be happening from the Amsterdam court in February.