The French are also looking for a place for their young drivers
Mercedes would go on to power only Aston Martin and McLaren, and its own team
Alpine will only power itself in 2021, as McLaren will switch to Mercedes power units. This is a development handicap, so the French have found in Williams the perfect opportunity to solve this problem.
However, this does not stop there, since the team also aspires for Grove’s team to become their junior or B team. In this way, they could raise young drivers from their academy to Formula 1, such as Christian. Lundgaard or Guanyu Zhou. At the moment, they do not have a place at Alpine, as the team has Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon and they plan to continue that for a few more seasons.
If the agreement between Alpine and Williams is confirmed, the distribution of the engines would change substantially. Mercedes would go on to power only Aston Martin and McLaren in addition to themselves. The French would provide their power unit to a client team and Ferrari would continue its work with Alfa Romeo and Haas. On the other hand, Red Bull and AlphaTauri will develop their engine from the Honda of this 2021 thanks to the freeze that will take effect in 2022 and that will last until 2025.
This union of Alpine and Williams would have consequences for Mercedes beyond the fact that they would be left without a client team. It should be remembered that George Russell, driver of the Brackley academy, will begin his third season with the Grove team in the absence of a free seat in the current champion. Thus, they would face the possibility of having to make important decisions about their driver line-up perhaps sooner than they planned.
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