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With George Russell heading for Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas to Alfa Romeo and Nicholas Latifi looking like a lock-in for a 2022 Williams stay, there’s still a vacancy each alongside Latifi and Bottas respectively.
In our usual verdict format, we’ve asked our writers not who they think will get the remaining Alfa Romeo and Williams seats, but who they would choose, and why.
It’s thrown up some interesting options that may be well out of the realms of possibility, but silly season is fun and none of the suggestions featured are totally bonkers. All are founded in reality, within reason.
See our writers’ choices below, and be sure to let us know in the comments who you would be installing alongside Bottas and Latifi respectively.
Mark Hughes
Alfa Romeo: Antonio Giovinazzi
Williams: Alex Albon
With Bottas at Alfa the team at last has a driver who will be proactive in pushing for what is needed and who carries the weight for that initiative to be followed. Kimi Raikkonen had the stature but was always a very passive presence.
Giovinazzi has sort of lived in the shadow of Raikkonen’s stature and without the sort of thrusting personality to make things happen.
With Bottas there, I think we’d have a much better chance of Giovinazzi fulfil his real potential, which is being glimpsed this year. In a Bottas-led environment I think he’d shine and all that experience wouldn’t be wasted. Plus there’s the usual benefits of continuity.
Albon would be my Williams choice. He’s going to be hugely motivated to prove a point.
His Red Bull senior team time was disappointing in a car that was/is very difficult to get the best from, but he was no further off Max Verstappen there than was Pierre Gasly, who has since resurrected his career brilliantly well.
Albon is fully capable of doing the same and is the sort of personality which would be a perfect fit for the team. They could grow together into something increasingly impressive, I feel.
Glenn Freeman
Alfa: Mick Schumacher
Williams: Nico Hulkenberg
With tensions rising between Schumacher and current team-mate Nikita Mazepin, who it seems pretty safe to assume won’t be going anywhere any time soon, a move to Alfa Romeo would be handy way out before the situation becomes too unpleasant, and a logical next step in Schumacher’s career.
The Haas is so far off the pace that all Schumacher can realistically do each weekend is beat his team-mate, who he clearly has the measure of.
Moving to a more competitive team, and with a proven driver like Bottas as a team-mate and benchmark, would do a lot more for Schumacher’s development than staying at Haas, even if the American-owned team – like everyone else on the grid other than Mercedes and Red Bull – is pinning its hopes on the 2022 rules as a chance for a revival.
Suggesting Hulkenberg for the Williams seat says as much about how unconvincing the team’s apparent shortlist is for next year as it does the German’s own talents.
But Williams can’t afford to gamble for 2022 with Russell moving on. Latifi is popular with the team and offers stability, but he’s going to need a strong, reliable, proven team-mate. The names being mentioned don’t fit that bill – although Albon is definitely the one with the best chance from that bunch.
With Hulkenberg Williams would have a driver it could trust, and someone experienced enough to take on the mantle and pressure of becoming the new team leader. The argument against him would be that he’s had plenty of chances over the last decade so perhaps it’s time for someone else to have a shot, but that logic only applies if there’s an alternative available that’s close to a sure thing.
None of the younger names in the mix have shown enough to demand that a team with Williams’s needs must take them on. It doesn’t appear to have a slam-dunk option among its candidates, so a reunion with Hulkenberg makes a lot of sense.
Scott Mitchell
Alfa: Antonio Giovinazzi
Williams: Oscar Piastri
I have a feeling I know as much as I need to about Giovinazzi in Formula 1: capable of being very quick in qualifying, not so reliable in the races.
But I don’t really know. All respect to the retiring Kimi Raikkonen, he isn’t the F1 powerhouse he once was. And in qualifying he has been especially vulnerable.
Bottas joining Alfa Romeo doesn’t really give the team a stunning Sunday upgrade given Bottas himself is a better qualifier than racer.
But it is at least a proper, in-his-prime yardstick to measure Giovinazzi against. So if I was running Alfa Romeo I’d be keen to keep him around and get a better read for how quick he actually is.
It pains me that the Formula 2 season is only halfway done because I think it’s hurt the chances of the main contenders to really make a mark.
How good is Oscar Piastri? I think good enough to merit an F1 shot. Rookie titles in Formula 3 and possibly Formula 2 speak to that. Although the fact the F2 season is still only halfway through means he could propel himself to the title or fade away and make me regret backing him!
Drivers like Piastri deserve a shot that a team like Williams can offer. I think the team should be looking to partner a Latifi type with someone new and exciting so Piastri gets my vote.
Jack Benyon
Alfa: Callum Ilott
Williams: Alex Albon
Whatever you think of Bottas, he’s going to be a very safe and consistent pair of hands in the Alfa Romeo. So why add a similar type of driver in Giovinazzi as well?
If Giovinazzi was going to blow us away with his searing pace, he’d have done it by now. And it’s clear to me at least that he’ll never be anything more than a sim driver for the Ferrari works team.
Throw Callum Ilott in there. We all know his upside is phenomenal even if he is likely to be rough around the edges in F1 initially. We won’t know that though until he gets a chance!
With a proven formula in Bottas, risk it with Ilott for the upside.
At Williams, I’d give Albon the chance purely as he’d be the team leader alongside his former F2 pal Latifi.
We’ve seen that it’s a struggle for any driver to get into the second Red Bull and make it work. Albon proved his pace previously in the Toro Rosso, and with the potential for improvements coming at Williams this is a great opportunity to continue the work Russell has done and mould the team and car characteristics around himself.
I don’t think we’ve really seen Albon’s best yet and this could be his chance.
There aren’t better options on the table for Williams in my opinion unless it goes for Piastri, who could prove a downgrade on Albon ultimately, and there’s plenty of upside at Williams for Albon to get his teeth stuck into.
Edd Straw
Alfa: Alex Albon
Williams: Alex Albon
If I was running Alfa Romeo or Williams, Albon would be top of the list of the available drivers.
But there is a caveat to that, which is that he would need to be signed outright rather than as a Red Bull loan. Both Alfa and Williams need drivers who are not there at the whim of another entity and at a time when their ambition is to climb the grid they both need the best available options.
Albon has had a rough time in F1 and his Red Bull experience was not a positive one. He’s not the only driver to have struggled against Verstappen, but it wasn’t just a question of the pace that was the problem but also that he seemed to struggle to deal with the situation.
But he’s had a year to reflect and experience life in a somewhat lower-profile championship so that means he should be revitalised and ready for another go.
Neither team is in a position to pick from a wealth of riches in the driver market so ‘recycling’ a driver like Albon is a valid option. You would rather pick a driver with a big potential upside, which Albon has because fundamentally he has a lot of ability. It’s simply a question of whether he can bounce back and find the right path with a new team.
He also has experience and that is an important commodity. With no obvious emerging superstar option to sign who would not be on loan from elsewhere, something they should only do if there is a potentially extraordinary talent on offer, Albon is the driver who ticks the most of the boxes.
But he doesn’t tick all of the boxes, none of the options do. So it will be down to whichever team gets him to create the optimum conditions to get the best out of a genuinely talented – if frustrating given his struggles in 2020 – driver. If either can do that then Albon will pay off in spades.
There is an element of risk, but for teams at the back of the queue to sign drivers that’s often the best route to take.
Sam Smith
Alfa: Theo Pourchaire
Williams: Nyck de Vries
Word is that Frederic Vasseur doesn’t really fancy Nyck de Vries, so Fred’s loss should be Williams’ gain.
A Formula 2 and Formula E champion at the age of 26 is as strong a CV as anyone who is available right now. But more than that, De Vries has matured into a very strong all-round performer.
Formula E tests mental strength like few other championships. Don’t let me tell you that, ask Nyck. He found the archaic qualifying system this season almost drove him to distraction but he kept his cool when he couldn’t buy a point in a mid-season trough. He came back at just the right time in London in July and re-built an ultimately successful title challenge.
Williams could do with those traits in a post-Russell world.
So who could Vasseur fancy as a sidekick to Bottas? The head will surely be saying give Giovinazzi another go, even if just for a bit of stability in 2022.
But Vasseur is a racer, so his heart will be screaming ‘Théo Pourchaire’.
He may wait to see how ART GP’s standout junior performs in second half of the F2 season starting at Monza this weekend, but there are many that believe that perhaps France’s next potential world champion is already ripe for an F1 debut in 2022.
Gary Anderson
Alfa: Antonio Giovinazzi
Williams: Alex Albon
With Russell now confirmed at Mercedes there are still two seats to be firmed up – the number two driver at Alfa Romeo and what we should probably call the number one driver at Williams.
First Alfa Romeo. I know that Frederic Vasseur has said that driver choice is down to the team and that Alfa Romeo or Ferrari have no control over that but (at this point in time) it is a Ferrari-engined car and I can’t believe that neither will have any input.
So saying that, I think Giovinazzi being Italian must have the best chance. If it’s money the team requires and it is happy to go for a newbie then I think it will be current Formula 2 points leader Guanyu Zhou.
Secondly, Williams. I’m pretty sure that, if Williams keeps Latifi, it will need a team leader. For that, it will need to have some experience so my guess would be Albon.
He has the good and bad experience he picked up at Toro Rosso and then Red Bull. He was outmatched against Verstappen, who as others have shown is not an easy team-mate, but on occasions he showed a true turn of speed. I’m pretty sure he would be a good replacement for Russell.
Valentin Khorounzhiy
Alfa: Theo Pourchaire
Williams: Alex Albon
Albon-to-Williams seems to me an all-around perfect fit – he’s definitely earned another chance in F1 and will make a super-likeable line-up with Latifi.
As for the Alfa seat, there are a lot of sensible choices around, from keeping the pacey and underrated (if distinctly non-clutch) Giovinazzi to dipping outside the current F1 grid.
But sensible is boring, and recent F1 history has shown that just a single season in F3 and a single season in F2 can be plenty enough to prepare someone like Lando Norris for F1, even if the more recent example of Yuki Tsunoda – a driver who clearly has the raw potential but is having a really tough time showing it in F1 – might act as counter-evidence.
There seems to be a general acknowledgment that F2 rookie star Pourchaire, whose potential has been clear for all to see these past couple of years, will be an F1 driver sooner or later.
Given how major F1’s 2022 changes are, might as well make it sooner, and continue his development there – even if the head-to-head comparison with Bottas could produce some unpleasant numbers initially.
