Born on 6 February 1995 in Uitwellingerga in the Dutch province of Friesland, Hendrik Johannes Nicasius de Vries began karting in 2008 and won back-to-back senior World Championships in 2010 and 2011. After winning the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2014 with Koiranen GP, he moved to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2015 with DAMS, finishing third. In 2016 he joined ART Grand Prix in the GP3 Series, where he finished sixth in a field that saw his future F2 teammate Charles Leclerc take the title and Alexander Albon finish second.
De Vries entered F2 in its inaugural season in 2017 with Rapax. He claimed his first victory in the Monaco sprint race and accumulated three further podiums before the summer break. Mid-season he switched to Racing Engineering, with whom he scored a second place at Spa-Francorchamps. He ended 2017 seventh in the championship and was the second-placed rookie, showing the raw speed that more stable machinery could harness.
Moving to Prema Racing alongside Sean Gelael in 2018, de Vries made steady progress after a slow start. His campaign gained momentum with wins in the feature races at the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps, along with a sprint victory at Le Castellet. He claimed six podiums in total but finished fourth in the championship — behind Alex Albon, Lando Norris, and champion George Russell — by ten points to Albon, a gap that reflected reliability issues and the depth of the field rather than a deficit in pace.
For 2019, de Vries returned to ART Grand Prix alongside 2018 GP3 runner-up Nikita Mazepin. His campaign was measured and methodical. A podium in Baku and a sprint win in Barcelona gave him early momentum. He then went to Monaco and won the feature race from pole position, seizing the championship lead.
The French round at Le Castellet saw him take the main race victory to extend his lead. He added pairs of third-place finishes at the Red Bull Ring and at Monza, and collected a podium at Silverstone. His fourth and final win of the season came at Sochi. Entering the penultimate round with a commanding advantage, de Vries was mathematically crowned FIA Formula 2 Champion at Sochi, making the Abu Dhabi finale a formality.
De Vries finished 2019 with four race victories, and his championship win came having resisted challenges from a competitive grid that included future Formula One regulars. His driving style emphasised tyre conservation and strategic patience — traits that served him well in endurance racing and Formula E later in his career. The 2019 crown remains one of the most methodically assembled in modern Formula 2 history.
Despite the Formula 2 title, no Formula One seat materialised immediately for de Vries. He joined the Mercedes Formula E team for the 2019–20 season and went on to win the 2020–21 Formula E World Championship. He made his Formula One debut as a substitute for Alexander Albon at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix at Williams, scoring a points finish and Driver of the Day, before joining AlphaTauri for the full 2023 season.
De Vries' 2019 F2 season is a case study in championship management — he did not need pole positions or dominant wins to secure the title, building his lead through consistency and avoiding the catastrophic retirements that cost rivals. His story also illustrates the uncertain path between junior series success and Formula One, as one of the last high-profile Formula 2 champions for whom an F1 drive did not follow automatically from the title.