Vassell: Choosing a driver is never an easy decision

Frederick Vassell, in bidding farewell to Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, dismissed the claim that choosing their replacement was an "easy" decision.

With Raikkonen retiring from F1 and Giovinazzi failing to ignite the excitement of the race, It is possible that Alfa Romeo's team's manager Vassell will be looking for a brand new pair of drivers for the 2022 season. The first new driver to be confirmed was Walteri Bottas, who had worked with finns in the GP3 series, and Bottas also helped Mercedes win the constructors' championship five times in a row, making it relatively easy to choose him.

Alfa Romeo didn't decide on their second driver until the last minute, choosing F2 driver Zhou Guanyu instead of Jovinazzi.

Vassell said: "It was never an easy decision to choose a driver. You'll find that some of my colleagues will say it's an easy choice, obvious, but never obvious because it's a critical choice. ”

Vassell has previously said of his hope that the new signing will open the sponsorship door for the team, saying: "We need to think about this and how to attract sponsors and driver combinations is closely linked. However, the team leader insisted it wasn't just a matter of money, and in fact it wasn't just about the drivers' speed.

He said: "Not just the speed, of course, it's a parameter, but the key is how he fits into the team, what stage of his career he wants to go, the collaboration between the two cars because you have two drivers. Speed, sponsors, we need a budget, it's a very complicated decision, but it's never an easy one. ”

Zhou Guanyu will be the only rookie to enter F1 this year, and the 22-year-old zhou Guanyu recently said he was happy to have an experienced teammate like Bottas.