Both Alfa Romeo and Williams have confirmed that they will retain their current driver lineups for next season.
- Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi will continue to race for Alfa Romeo for a third consecutive year.
- Williams duo George Russell and Nicholas Latifi meanwhile will enjoy their second season as teammates.
- The teams announced their retention of their current lineups in the build up to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
On the eve of Formula One's return to Imola for the Emila Romagna Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo and Williams confirmed that they will continue into 2021 with the same driver lineups.
With Kimi Raikkonen being aged 41, there had been some question marks over whether he would want to continue his Formula One career into next season. Meanwhile with Ferrari juniors, Schumacher, Ilott and Shwartzman performing well in F2, people had been left wondering how safe Giovinazzi's seat was. The team's management confirmed today however that both would remin at the team for next season.
Meanwhile there had been speculation that Williams could replace Mercedes junior, George Russell with Sergio Perez. Earlier today however, Williams confirmed that there would be no change going into 2021, and that they're "very happy" with both drivers, and "look forward to continuing to work with them."
Kimi Raikkonen became the most experienced driver in the history of Formula One this season, and confirmed that he was pleased to still be a part of the team's project:
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe in the team’s project and in what we feel we can achieve together.
"This is a team that values hard work over words and this fits well with my style. I am looking forward to next year and hopefully making some steps forward towards the front of the midfield with the team.”
His counterpart, Antonio Giovinazzi who began his F1 career with Alfa Romeo, seemed hopeful that this stability would work in their favour, with the team having "put a lot of faith in [him]", while he'd done his "best to repay this confidence with hard work and commitment:
“We have achieved some good results and I feel I have done my part to make the team progress, but the road ahead is still long and there is much more we want to achieve together.
"There will be a lot of continuity between this season and the next one, so everything we work on between now and the end of the year will already count for next, and we are ready to give it all we have.”
In the Williams stable meanwhile, new team owners, Dorilton seem happy with the current lineup, with acting Team Principal Simon Roberts confirming that there would be no change to the drivers. He announced that it "will be the driver lineup for this year and next year, we're very happy with them."
George Russell therefore will continue with Williams to mark his third season in Formula One:
“It’s always nice to have stability, it’s never nice to hear any speculation that your job is potentially up for grabs. Nevertheless I was confident in what I could perform on track and ultimately I had to do the talking on track and I was confident nothing would change moving into 2021 even with all the speculation going around.
“Like I said I think a lot of the speculation was fed by other team members or teams surrounding drivers to create these issues over the last couple of weeks. So I’m definitely happy and pleased to continue on this journey.”
With no change to the team's lineup, this means that Canadian rookie, Nicholas Latifi will continue into the second year of his F1 career with the Williams team.
The news from both Alfa Romeo and Williams today means that the grid for next season is finally coming close to completion. With both Alfa Romeo seats now filled, it is expected that Haas will announce Ferrari junior, Mick Schumacher, in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, it seems that the only likely destination left for Sergio Perez if he is to continue in F1, is with Red Bull Racing. This of course would rely on the team deciding not to continue with Alexander Albon, in which case the Thai driver would likely follow Pierre Gasly back to Red Bull's sister team, AlphaTauri.
Of course, Lewis Hamilton has still not signed a new contract with Mercedes, meaning that there is still a drive with the silver arrows up for grabs. It would however be a surprise if he were not sign an extension, particularly given that Mercedes junior, George Russell has now been confirmed at Williams.
dammit I forgot about him totally.
