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Williams acting team principal Simon Roberts has confirmed George Russell and Nicholas Latifi will continue to drive for the team in 2021 amid rumours Sergio Perez was under consideration for a seat.
Perez’s management is known to have approached Williams about a possible deal and some kind of talks did take place, but Roberts has now said explicitly that there will be no change to the line-up that was originally confirmed in July.
“I probably caused a bit of confusion last week, I’m sorry about that” :: Simon Roberts
Roberts also apologised for the “confusion” he admitted to causing in a press conference over the Portuguese Grand Prix weekend where his attempts not to fuel the speculation led to the impression that a change was possible thanks to his refusal to confirm the line-up.
When asked today at Imola to confirm Russell and Latifi would continue to drive for the team in 2021, Roberts replied: “Yeah, I can.
“I probably caused a bit of confusion last week, I’m sorry about that.
“We didn’t really want to comment on the driver position but we made the announcement earlier this year, nothing has changed and this is our driver line-up for this year and next year.
“We’re very happy with them and we’re looking forward to continuing.”
Russell has always maintained he was unconcerned about his position, saying after last week’s strong drive to 14th in the Portuguese Grand Prix that he believed the rumours had been placed by what he called “the Perez camp” as the Mexican chased a seat for next season.
“It’s never nice to hear any speculation that your job is potentially up for grabs” :: George Russell
Despite not scoring a point in his 33 starts for Williams, Russell has consistently impressed with his pace and reached Q2 seven times in 12 attempts this year.
He has also yet to be outqualified by a team-mate in F1.
“Obviously it’s always nice to have stability, it’s never nice to hear any speculation that your job is potentially up for grabs but nevertheless I was confident in what I could perform on track and, ultimately, I had to do the talk on track,” Russell said.
“I was confident nothing would change moving into 2021, even with all the speculation going around.
“And like I said I think a lot of the speculation was fed via other team members or teams surrounding drivers to create these issues over the last couple of weeks.
“Definitely happy and pleased to continue the journey.”
With few drives available for 2021, Perez’s hopes for a seat now depend on securing one of the places at Red Bull or Haas.
He has been mentioned as a potential candidate to take Alex Albon’s seat by Red Bull, although Nico Hulkenberg is favourite to take that drive.
Roberts would not comment on the extent of the Perez conversations.
“All I can tell you is nothing’s changed, we’re going to stick with these two guys as our drivers, that was the plan,” he said.
“That’s what we’re doing going into ’21, so I can’t add to any of the speculation, there’s all sorts of stuff going on in the paddock.”
