Could Formula 1’s only ‘perfect’ driver be cut after 2020?

Could Formula 1’s lone “perfect” driver, George Russell, end up losing his ride for the 2021 season, despite having a contract with Williams?

Mercedes junior driver George Russell has competed in Formula 1 since last season and has long been seen as the next driver in line for a seat with the Silver Arrows, whenever Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas move on from the team.

The 2017 GP3 Series champion and 2018 Formula 2 champion landed a ride with Williams ahead of the 2019 season and retained that ride into 2020.

Deputy team principal Claire Williams stated last year that he was under contract through 2021 and therefore Mercedes would not be able to promote him to the factory team until at least 2022.

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Then this past July, Williams confirmed that both Russell and rookie Nicholas Latifi are set to return to the team for a second consecutive season next year.

This confirmation marked the first time that Williams had retained both drivers from one year to the next since between the 2015 and 2016 seasons when Bottas and Felipe Massa were their drivers. But this was before New York investment firm Dorilton Capital purchased the Grove-based team.

The Formula 1 team’s new owners had reportedly been exploring the possibility of getting out of their existing driver contracts, including George Russell’s.

Performance-wise, Russell was safe without a doubt. However, we all know that money trumps performance in many cases, and considering the fact that Williams are struggling as much as they are, with just one point on a fluke 10th place finish in the last 40 races going back to the 2018 season, they need the money.

Given Latifi’s backing, Russell was seen as the driver potentially on the outside looking in, in favor of somebody such as the heavily-backed Sergio Perez or Formula 2 driver Nikita Mazepin.

Perez is set to be replaced at Racing Point (Aston Martin) by current Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, and Mazepin’s billionaire father Dmitry is the core shareholder and chairman of Uralchem Integrated Chemicals Company and is keen to get his son into Formula 1.

These rumors were spread despite the fact that Russell is Formula 1’s lone “perfect” driver. In 34 career starts, not once has he been beaten by a teammate in qualifying. He started his career a perfect 21 for 21 against Robert Kubica last year, and he is 13-0 against Latifi with five races remaining on this year’s schedule.

The chances of that happening during any 34-race streak are 1 in 17,179,869,184 (0.0000000058207661%), much less to start a career as somebody barely into his twenties.

That is unprecedented, legendary stuff right there from the 22-year-old Briton — and it still did not deter these rumors.

But Williams acting team principal Simon Roberts confirmed that there is nothing to these rumors. Here is what he had to say, according to Formula 1.

"“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 as George said, Claire made the announcement earlier this year. Nothing’s 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 working with them in a continued way.”"

Here is how Russell responded to the situation.

"“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 talking on the track and as Simon said, I was confident nothing would change moving into 2021 even with all speculation going around.“And like I said, a lot of that speculation was fed via other team members or teams surrounding drivers to create these issues over the last couple of weeks. [I’m] definitely happy and I’m pleased to continue on this journey.”"

Thankfully this unfortunate situation is not slated to happen, because “out of sight, out of mind” in Formula 1 is never a good place to be, and it would have been a shame to see it happen to a talented young driver at this stage in his career. But let’s hope that Russell does end up in a far more competitive ride at some point in the near future, preferably with Mercedes.