Pools are already being made about who would be the replacement for Hamilton

F1 2021

The British press is already drawing up lists of candidates in case the seven-time champion decides to be 'scared'

It doesn't look like it's going to happen and it's more the tantrum of not having won the eighth title, and the way the defeat came about, than a firm possibility. Lewis Hamilton will return to try to surpass Michael Schumacher and another option seems like a mere interpretation of the theatrical words of his boss, Toto Wolff. "He will never overcome the pain of what happened in Abu Dhabi as a pilot," launched the Austrian.

But in various British publications. Like 'GPBlog', the lists of possible candidates to occupy the steering wheel of Hamilton are made if he decided to leave, some seem plausible, other alternatives have neither head nor tail.

Esteban Ocon

Going to celebrate the victory in Arabia with Hamilton, despite having lost the podium in the last corner in Jeddah, was a highly commented episode about Estaban Ocon. The Frenchman parted ways with Mercedes at the beginning of 2020, before coming to Renault after a sabbatical, but it escapes no one that he was one of Toto Wolff's drivers from F3. He is still very young and a case pilot of the house.

Valtteri Bottas

Stoffel Vandoorne

Driver of Mercedes descent, today in Formula E, for whom the Honda engine and his pairing with Fernando Alonso (McLaren 2017 and 2018) ended up destroying a promising career in F1 . The Belgian, now 29, won 7 feature length races (non-reverse grid) in his day to become GP2 champion with ART in 2015. It remains the class record.

Sebastian Vettel

His nationality and the fact that he was in last year's pools to replace Bottas, allows him to be included by some optimists as a possible man for Mercedes. His best days in F1 seem a long way off, and he has not been considered in the directors' votes (the best of 2021) nor among the top 10 on the grid. That would be good news for Russell in his first year with the 'silver arrows'.