Formula 1: Who will drive for Williams in the 2019 season?

George Russell has been confirmed as Williams Racing’s first driver for the 2019 Formula 1 season. Who will their second driver be?

With Canadian billionaire investor Lawrence Stroll having led a consortium and purchased Force India (formerly Sahara Force India, now Racing Point Force India), his son Lance, who is currently in his second Formula 1 season driving for Williams Martini Racing, is will likely replace Esteban Ocon at Force India next year.

While Force India have not confirmed their driver lineup for the 2019 season, Ocon has already confirmed that he will not be returning to the team next year.

This makes sense considering the fact that the backers of his teammate Sergio Perez were the ones who sent the team into administration to protect them from the threat of a winding-up offer, allowing the Lawrence Stroll-led consortium to capitalize and make their purchase. As a result, Perez is expected to return to the team in 2019.

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This has left the 22-year-old Frenchman in a position where he may end up without a ride in the 2019 season despite the fact that he is a member of the Mercedes driver development program who is widely considering one of the most talented drivers in the sport and a future world champion.

Ocon’s chances of landing a ride for next season appeared to take a huge hit when Williams signed ART Grand Prix Formula 2 driver George Russell on a multi-year contract to replace Stroll beginning next year.

However, the team have not confirmed whether or not their other driver, Sergey Sirotkin, will be returning in the 2019 season. As a result, Williams team boss Claire Williams did not rule out signing Ocon, a member of the Mercedes driver development program, as their second driver for next season. Here is what she had to say about the matter, according to Sky Sports.

"“We are still doing a lot of evaluation work. It’s a short short-list. We’re very happy with the drivers we are evaluating and it will not take us a long time to make that final decision. Of course Esteban is in the mix. We would be crazy not to be looking at him.”"

Ocon is certainly a deserving candidate of landing a ride with the Grove-based team for next season. In 37 races driving for Force India since the start of the 2017 season, he has earned 28 top 10 finishes, including career-high finishes of fifth place in the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix and the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix.

Ocon finished in eighth in the 2017 driver standings and set an all-time record with 27 consecutive races to start his Formula 1 career during which he was not forced to retire. Of these 27 races, nine were the races in which he competed in the 2016 season driving for Manor Racing MRT and 18 were the first 18 races of the 2017 season.

However, even with Ocon’s talent being clear, are Williams in a position to sign him?

This season, Williams signed Sirotkin over Robert Kubica, who is now the team’s reserve driver, largely due to Sirotkin’s substantial financial backing from SMP Racing.

With Williams set to lose their investment from Lawrence Stroll considering Lance will not be driving for the team next year and with Martini no longer set to sponsor the team once the 2018 season concludes, it is hard to imagine them taking anything less than what Sirotkin’s backers have to offer from a financial standpoint, especially considering the fact that they are already by far the slowest team on the grid.

Because of his substantial financial backing, the 23-year-old Russian will likely be signed over Kubica, who has emerged as a potential candidate to be Russell’s teammate for next season, once again despite the fact that he has underperformed this season to say the very least.

Sirotkin has recorded just one top 10 finish, a 10th place finish in the Italian Grand Prix, and just one point as a result of it through the season’s first 17 races. He currently sits in 20th (last) in the driver standings.

With this in mind, Williams would likely sign Sirotkin over Ocon as well even though it is fairly evident that Ocon would be more than a solid replacement for Sirotkin.

There is no doubt that Ocon is probably Williams’s best candidate to be Russell’s teammate from a talent standpoint and Kubica could also get the job done, especially considering his past experience in Formula 1, but Sirotkin is the driver who will most likely end up being the team’s second driver because of his substantial financial backing.

Who will be George Russell’s teammate at Williams in the 2019 Formula 1 season? Will the team sign Esteban Ocon, Sergey Sirotkin or Robert Kubica? The 2019 season is still about five months away from getting underway, but with the 2018 season rapidly coming to a close, expect to know who Russell’s teammate will be in the very near future.