Take Two Predicts: Driver line-up at Williams and Alfa Romeo F1 teams in 2021
|By Prasham Pratap|
After a very exciting pre-season testing, every Formula 1 fan was waiting for the 2020 season to start. However, this excitement was short-lived as the COVID crisis struck and the races started getting cancelled one after the other.
As of now, it remains to be seen if we could see any Grand Prix happening in this year. The crisis is far from over and there are very slim chances of the sport returning to track before this pandemic is averted.
What is interesting though is that most drivers who were on the grid in 2019 will run out of their contracts at the end of 2020.
With this, we might witness a lot of juggling around as teams look to get the most fitting drivers to improve their performances.
As of last week, this pursuit of getting the best onboard has already started, as Sebastian Vettel, parted ways with Ferrari, to vacate one of the most coveted seats in Formula 1. A few days later, Ferrari announced its replacement in Carlos Sainz, the McLaren driver from 2020. What's more, is that the seat vacated at McLaren is going to be filled by Daniel Ricciardo. Now, with this, there is a seat vacated at Renault apart from the various seats that were supposed to be vacant due to contract lapses at the end of 2020.
Let us make some speculations and see what the teams might go after for the upcoming season of 2021.
Williams:
Williams has been a team that has seen it all in the last 4 to 5 years. From consistent podium finishes to mid-field struggles to finishing last consistently, it is a team that has some serious thinking to do. But, in the 2020 pre-season testing, Williams did show some improvements over the last year.
With one driver in his Rookie season (George Russell) and another making a comeback in 2019 (Robert Kubica), it was a rather pale season for Williams as they had no pace to match the rest of the grid.
In 2020, Robert Kubica was replaced by Nicholas Latifi. But as of 2020 end, both Russell and Latifi will not have an active contract in hand.
Williams might look at maintaining their 2020 driver line-up because Russell has shown some promise in the last season, and is in all probability, a future Mercedes driver. But, we wouldn't be surprised if Russell gets an early call from Mercedes to join Hamilton (if he renews his contract at Mercedes) in 2021. Though this seems a little unlikely, as Bottas might continue his stint at Mercedes, this possibility cannot be ruled out.
On the other hand, Nicholas Latifi might get at least another year as Williams could not see the talented youngster behind the wheel, in race situations.
So, the final prediction is that Williams will retain Latifi and will want to retain Russell as well.
Alfa Romeo:
Alfa Romeo Racing is the Sauber F1 team in new branding since the 2018 season. For the last two seasons, Alfa Romeo has been struggling to climb up the ranks in the mid-field. In 2018, Alfa Romeo had Charles Leclerc on board who exchanged seats with Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari in 2019.
As for Kimi, it was a two-year contract similar to that of his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi. So, after two seasons (2019 and 2020), both these drivers would be looking for a garage.
Now it becomes very difficult to predict which drivers will be there at Alfa Romeo in 2021, as the team has not much to offer in terms of results. For all its worth, Alfa Romeo might just retain both its drivers. Another opening that Alfa Romeo might try to capture is one of the drivers from the Haas F1 team. Both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean end their contracts at Haas at the end of 2020. If Alfa Romeo strikes early, they might get a replacement for Antonio for the upcoming season, just in case they want a change.
Although, that being said, Kimi is towards the end of his career and Antonio who is a Ferrari scout might continue with this team for at least another year. Antonio had shown some promise in the 2019 season which might have gotten the interest of the team management. Kimi, on the other hand, is an experienced driver who can help this team grow.
Not to forget, Nico Hulkenberg is waiting in the wings. If Alfa Romeo can offer him a good price, there is a chance that Hulkenberg will come in for either of the two drivers at Alfa Romeo.
Final predictions for Alfa Romeo would be that at least one driver will continue to be a part of this team.
Well, these were the predictions from a fan's point of view. Stay tuned for the next round of predictions where we will be discussing Haas F1 and Scuderia Alpha Tauri.
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