De Vries was born in Uitwellingerga, Friesland, and began competitive kart racing at the age of nine. He quickly rose through the junior ranks, winning the WSK World Series for the KF3 category in 2008 and retaining those titles in 2009 alongside the European KF3 Championship. His karting career culminated in back-to-back FIA Karting World Championship titles in 2010 and 2011, establishing him as one of the standout talents of his generation before graduating to cars.
De Vries joined the McLaren Young Driver Programme in 2010 and signed with Koiranen GP for the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 from 2013. In 2014, racing in his third Eurocup season, he dominated the championship — winning six races, finishing on the podium in eleven of fourteen rounds, and beating runner-up Dennis Olsen 254 points to 124. That same year he also excelled in the Alpine Formula Renault season, winning ten of fourteen races.
In 2015 de Vries moved to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with DAMS, finishing third overall after winning the final race at Jerez, behind Oliver Rowland and Matthieu Vaxivière. He then competed in the GP3 Series in 2016 with ART Grand Prix, taking wins at Monza and Yas Marina and finishing sixth in the championship — behind teammates Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon, who took the top two places.
De Vries entered Formula 2 in 2017 with Rapax, scoring his first win in the Monte Carlo sprint race. He moved to Racing Engineering mid-season and finished seventh overall. In 2018 with Prema Racing alongside Sean Gelael, he claimed three feature race victories — including consecutive wins in Hungary and Belgium — but ended the season fourth, beaten by Alex Albon, Lando Norris, and George Russell.
His title arrived in 2019 back at ART Grand Prix alongside Nikita Mazepin. De Vries won four races, including a lights-to-flag victory from pole position in Monaco, and clinched the Formula 2 championship at the penultimate round in Sochi. It was a comprehensive triumph across his third season in the category.
De Vries joined the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team for the 2019–20 season alongside Stoffel Vandoorne. In 2020–21 he was outstanding: he won the opening race in Diriyah from pole and took his second victory of the season in Valencia. Heading into the final Berlin rounds with the championship lead, de Vries survived a chaotic final race to clinch the title by seven points over Edoardo Mortara, finishing with two wins, four podiums, and 99 points over the season.
He remained at Mercedes for the 2021–22 swansong season, winning the opening Diriyah race, before departing to pursue a Formula One career. Following the end of his F1 stint, de Vries signed with Mahindra Racing for the 2023–24 Formula E season alongside Mortara. He secured podiums in Monaco and London during the 2024–25 campaign, and took his first win since the 2022 Berlin ePrix at Monaco during the 2025–26 season.
De Vries served as test and reserve driver for Williams, Mercedes, McLaren, and Aston Martin. His Formula One race debut came unexpectedly at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix when Alex Albon was ruled out with appendicitis on Saturday morning. Stepping in at Williams, de Vries qualified thirteenth, started eighth after grid penalties, and finished ninth — scoring points on debut and earning the Driver of the Day award from fans.
That performance earned him a full-time seat at Scuderia AlphaTauri for 2023, replacing Pierre Gasly. However, de Vries struggled to match teammate Yuki Tsunoda's pace and results across the opening ten rounds, failing to score a single championship point. He was released mid-season after the British Grand Prix and replaced by Daniel Ricciardo, with Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko publicly critical of his performances. The decision to dismiss him so early in his rookie season was met with criticism from fellow drivers and within the Dutch racing community.
Since 2025 de Vries has served as a test and simulator driver for McLaren in Formula One.
De Vries began his sportscar career in 2018 with Racing Team Nederland in the LMP2 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. He and his teammates scored the team's first WEC victory at the 6 Hours of Fuji during the 2019–20 season. He also competed in the European Le Mans Series with G-Drive Racing in 2020 and 2021, winning the season finale at the Algarve.
In late 2023 de Vries was confirmed as a primary driver for the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar for 2024, replacing José María López. He took his first overall WEC victory at the 6 Hours of Imola — aided by a strong stint from veteran teammate Kamui Kobayashi — and finished second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans later that season. He went on to win Le Mans outright with Toyota in 2026.
De Vries is one of the few drivers of his era to have reached the top tier of formula racing, endurance racing, and Formula E simultaneously. His Formula E world championship with Mercedes places him among the elite of that series, while his WEC trajectory with Toyota — culminating in a Le Mans victory — demonstrates the breadth of his talent. Though his Formula One career at AlphaTauri was brief and unsuccessful, his debut performance at Monza in 2022 remains one of the more celebrated substitute drives in recent grand prix history.