Williams Martini Racing are reportedly finalizing a deal to sign 22-year-old Sergey Sirotkin for the 2018 Formula One season.
The final piece of the 2018 Formula One driver lineup puzzle may be ready to click into place. Williams Martini Racing are reportedly working on finalizing a deal to sign Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin for the next two seasons. He would fill the 20th and final open seat on the grid in 2018.
Sirotkin, 22, will likely be confirmed as Williams Martini Racing’s second driver within the next week or so, according to BBC Sport. Signing Sirotkin would give Williams two of the youngest drivers on the grid, as 19-year-old Lance Stroll is set to enter his second season in the sport in 2018.
Should the deal be finalized, Sirotkin would replace 36-year-old Felipe Massa, who announced his retirement from Formula One prior to the conclusion of the 2017 season. Sirotkin has been the favorite to land the ride over the past few weeks.
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At first, it looked as though 33-year-old Robert Kubica would end up replacing Massa. However, Sirotkin then also impressed Williams, and it was revealed that he would be backed by roughly £13million from the Russian-based SMP Racing, thus allowing him to essentially outbid Kubica for the seat.
It was also believed that, due to marketing purposes Williams would not sign a driver under the age of 25 given their sponsorship deal with Martini, and alcoholic beverage company. Because Stroll is only 19, many believed this limited the team’s options.
However, Paddy Lowe, the team’s technical head, made a comment about this back in October, according to Reuters.
"“What’s most important for the team is to pick a driver lineup that will give us the best performance and most exciting racing potential. There are some issues around advertising and Martini but if it came to it, I‘m sure Martini would understand the importance — if that’s what we were to choose — to have the best lineup for racing rather than for advertising. We will cross that bridge if we need to. Age is not a factor in our primary objective which is to pick the best lineup.”"
In other words, Sirotkin’s age is not the key factor in the team’s decision.
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Sergey Sirotkin has never driven in Formula One before, but he has had success before in various racing series. He won the 2011 Formula Abarth European Series championship and finished in 3rd place in the championship standings in both of his GP2 Series seasons in 2015 and 2016. He drove in two Formula 2 races in the 2017 season and he finished in the top 10 in both with a top finish of 4th. How will he do in Formula One if he ends up landing a ride with Williams in 2018? The season is set to begin on Sunday, March 25th with the Australian Grand Prix.