When Lewis Hamilton signed a one-year contract in February, it was inevitable that within weeks of the season starting, he and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff would be asked with regularity about the plan beyond the end of this campaign. And so it has transpired. So where do they stand? And what other driver market noise is starting to bubble up?
Hamilton and Wolff targeting earlier talks
Hamilton and Wolff do not want a repeat of what happened last time around, when contract talks dragged through last season, into the winter break, and then the early part of this year.
There was never any fear for those involved that it wouldn’t be done – everything was pretty much sorted in January it’s believed - but it was annoying that they couldn’t put it to bed completely, get some uninterrupted downtime and forget about it altogether rather than having little details hanging in the air.
Primed for his second season in Formula 1, Nicholas Latifi says he is grateful to have ‘Mr Saturday’ – team mate George Russell – providing a competitive qualifying benchmark for him at Williams, but insists this year he wants to start getting the upper hand when it comes to the Saturday shootouts.
The livery tweaks just keep coming in 2021’s F1 launch season, with Williams the latest to reveal a dramatically different blue, white and yellow look for the FW43B as they embark on a new chapter following the departure of the Williams family. Here are our five takeaways from their launch…
Williams have retained their super-sub Jack Aitken – who raced for them in last year’s Sakhir Grand Prix – as reserve driver for 2021.
Aitken, 25, made his F1 race debut in the penultimate round last season, standing in for George Russell, who in turn replaced a Covid-hit Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, in the sensational 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.
As reserve driver to Russell and Nicholas Latifi once more, Aitken s role will continue to involve simulator sessions and trackside work, with a second career FP1 appearance to come over this 23-race season along with media and marketing duties.
“After providing me with one of the most special moments of my career to date last year, I am absolutely delighted to continue with Williams in the position of reserve driver,” he said.