Due to the replacement of Sergio Perez at Racing Point by Sebastian Vettel from season 2021, the Mexican has been currently left without a seat and is exploring his options for the upcoming seasons. Numerous rumours have been linking him with different teams on the grid, from Red Bull to… Williams. 

Although Williams announced back in July that the team will retain their current line-up when it comes to drivers (Russell and Latifi), the team has changed its ownership since then, which lead to new rumours about the potential future of the young Brit in the past week or so. 

On Friday, the acting team principal Simon Roberts refused to confirm both Russell and Latifi will stay for 2021, but also stressed he did not want to fuel any speculations. After the Sunday’s race of the Portuguese GP, when asked, Russell said he believes the rumours have been induced by Perez’s management to try to put pressure on other teams to land a seat in 2021. 

As he said: "I think all of this speculation has probably been fed by the Perez camp, who are trying to apply pressure on other teams further down the grid, potentially [for] a Red Bull seat. That’s my view on it. I've got a contract, I've got nothing to worry about, and I'm just here focusing on my job.”

On Thursday, Russell said he would look into discussing the situation with the Williams new management. On Friday, the Dorilton Capital chairman Matthew Savage was in Portimao. 

Russell confirmed he had discussed the speculation with the Dorilton bosses, and he is expecting full clarity in the next week or so. 

As he said: "They've said they have no idea where these rumours have come from. They never like to comment on contractual situations obviously following Simon's press conference on Friday, things again were taken probably slightly out of context, which is exactly what the team didn't want to do. Ultimately the team didn't want to comment on it because they felt like it isn't necessary, and it's just opening themselves up to further queries later down the line.”

He added:  "I've got a contract, and I'll be on the grid next year, and I'm very confident of that. I think something pretty substantial would have to happen in the coming weeks for anything to change. There's obviously a lot of speculation. I think it's been fed from other people. Everything will be, like I said, everything will be fine. I'd say [it will be] 100% clarified from the team's perspective probably no later than the end of next week.”

Should Russell, who is backed up by Mercedes, worry about loosing his seat to Perez? Will Perez get a seat in another team, or is this season his last in F1?