Aug.24 (GMM) Williams is not ruling out keeping Nicholas Latifi for 2023.
While the British team is clearly happy with Alex Albon, even Canadian Latifi’s backing by his father’s company Sofina Foods may not be enough to secure his race seat.
However, the 27-year-old insists he has upped his game in recent races.
“This was not the case at the beginning of the year,” he said when asked if he deserves to stay at Williams in 2023. “But the team can evaluate my results since the performance increased.”
Team boss Jost Capito is believed to be eyeing Nyck de Vries for 2023, but he also is not ruling out a contract extension for Latifi.
“We have time and different options,” he is quoted by motorsport-total.com.
“Nicky took a relatively long time to gain confidence and trust in the car with the new regulations, but somehow the knot burst somehow at Silverstone.
“So we’ll have to see how he develops because he was really good alongside George Russell last year. If he can do that again there’s no reason to start talking about replacing him.”
Another candidate to replace Latifi, however, is a driver from Williams’ own driver development program – American Logan Sargeant, who races in Formula 2.
“He’s developing very well, and I think I’m known for quickly promoting young talent and not putting someone on the bench for too long,” Capito said.
“We have time at the moment to see how things develop.”