06/10/2009 - 10.00h European and German Champion, he gets the WSK titol last weekend at Zuera...

 

06/10/2009 - 10.00h European and German Champion, he gets the WSK titol last weekend at Zuera.

FFK: How did you get into karting?
NdV: My father had competed in Renault 5 races and also in Formula Renault. So, naturally, he had the idea to put me in a go-kart. He offered me a kart for my fourth birthday. I was rather scared, not with the speed, but because of the noise. One day, my father suggested me to put something in my ears and the problem was solved. At the beginning, I drove in a parking area of the car dealership of my father. We made a little track with old tyres, and I drove my first laps. Later on, a friend of us who owned an indoor circuit near our house let me drive after school.

FFK: When did you start competing?
NdV: When I was six. In fact the minimum age for competing was 8 but as there were club races, there was not much control and we were able to race. This is the reason why I raced against older drivers like Andre Hauke or Jack Te Braak or Yannick De Brabander.

 

 

FFK: Did you beat them?
NdV: Yes, sometimes. In the first event of the Belgian Championship, I finished 4th. I was 3rd in the first final. In the second final, I was in second position but in the last lap someone hit me off. In another race in Spa, I fought against De Brabander during the whole weekend for the first place.

FFK: Last July, you won the European title in KF3, apparently in an easy way. Was it really that easy?
NdV: It was not easy at all. I had a lot of pressure on me, because many people expected me to win. It was my last opportunity to take the title in KF3 and I really didn’t want to fail. The European Championship is the race everyone wants to win so you really need to give your best in such a race.  In qualifying, we were fast but the heats were difficult. I was in a strong group with drivers like Carlos Sainz or Pedro Hiltbrand. I made a good prefinal. The final was not easy: as the SKF left the track with a lot of rubber, I had to modify my driving a bit. I managed to make a small gap in the first 2 laps, which I maintained until the end

 

 

FFK: Did you really push hard in the final?
NdV: I had to push as hard as I could in every lap. If have a look at the lap times of the CIK sheets, you will see that I was really pushing.

FFK: When someone wins, and especially at your age, some people have comments like "well, Nyck has an special engine". What is your answer about it?
NdV: It’s always like that. I really don't care, I know what engine I have, I know it’s a good engine but there is no trick, if you know what I mean.

 

FFK: Some people have declared that you tested in Zuera for 2 weeks. How many days you tested at Zuera before the race?
NdV: We tested to be precise one day and a half. Some people try to find excuses but if you ask the track owner, he will confirm you what we say.

FFK: You have been using the same material since a long time ago.  Do you take profit of it?
NdV: For us it is a big advantage. Having used always the same brand, we know our chassis perfectly. We know how it works in all weather conditions. If we’d change the brand of our chassis, we might be fast in standard conditions but we’d need more experience to find the right setup if the situations changed.

 

FFK: Let's talk about Dino Chiesa.
NdV: He's very important. His capacity of analysis is brilliant. He understands everything. He is fantastic for the setup of the chassis but also with the engines. Sometimes, before the prefinal, after having tested so many things, we feel a bit lost. In that situation, Dino always knows in which way we have to go. And in 99% of the cases, he get it right. He's really like a computer. He's so much experience with the set-up and the material. For us, he is the best in karting. He doesn’t like a big truck and things like that. He only focuses on karting.

FFK: What do you think is your strongest point?
NdV: I think I'm really focused on what I'm doing. I do everything I can to win. His father added: another strength is that Nyck makes very few mistakes. Sometimes I compare the lap times with other drivers. Some may as fast as Nyck but not on every lap. Nyck usually does the same time in every lap and this is where he makes the difference.

 

 

FFK: And what could you to improve?
NdV: Basically I have to improve physically. I need to get stronger for the next category.

FFK: How do you manage to combine karting with school?
NdV: I am still studying obviously. I am following a school program but I do everything from home and our camper. I do my homework while we are travelling around Europe and I contact my teacher via email.  It works pretty well that way.

FFK: How is your life in the camper?

NdV: We spend a lot of time in the camper. Sometimes we rent a little apartment in Italy and from there we move around with the camper. My father cooks for my mechanic and me. It is pretty cool.

 

FFK: Tell us about your first experience in Japan where you raced with the Yamaha engine and you finished 2nd.

NdV: It was a very great experience. For that race, all the engines were sorted so that everybody was playing with the same cards. Dino Chiesa said: "I want to see you on a track in a part of the world where you need fifteen hours to get there. A track where you never tested and with material you discover. You might know the chassis but you have no idea about the engine and carburettor." During the free practice, we were fast but in the qualifying we were only sixteen, because, following someone’s advice, we put a carburettor that wasn’t good. For the heats, we put the original one and we were fast again. I came back from 16th to third. At the end I finished second, 0.004 second behind the winner! The last lap was incredible. I passed the leader in the last corner but in the straight he could come back and win. Thrilling finish!!!

 

 

FFK: Who do you consider your biggest rivals?
NdV: It is difficult to choose one. Carlos Sainz, Daniil Kvyat, Raffaele Marciello, Gerard Barrabeig, Jordan King and Pedro Hiltbrand are maybe the strongest but there are many good drivers on track. And the result of a race not always reflects the reality. I really felt sorry for Barrabeig in the European. He was the fastest during the whole weekend and he should’ve been on the podium.

FFK: Will you go on with karting next year?
NdV: Yes, I think we’ll do one or two more years in karting. Car racing is my goal in the future but I still really like karting and I don't want to leave it for the moment. What I don’t know is which category I’ll be racing. KF2? Super KF? Dino Chiesa will decide it.

FFK: If someone pushed you off the track...
NdV: Nyck: Oh, nothing. For example, last practice today, I was behind Gustavo (Menezes) and you know what happened last race at Genk (Gustavo pushed off Nyck in the final), so all the people in the paddock said "Now we need to watch, he's gonna fly!"... And I didn't do anything, it's pointless...