Lammers also a little sceptical about Williams chances after Italy GP

Nyck de Vries had an excellent performance at the Italian Grand Prix and Williams team principal, Jost Capito, had nice words to say about the Dutch driver. Jan Lammers also watched the interview and he is not entirely convinced that De Vries' performance at Monza has secured him a Williams seat in 2023.

"What I'm concerned about, he's holding the key by saying, 'How nice it would be to have him [under contract] next year'. That's something you hope he will say. He just talks about Nyck at other teams: 'This has raised the price and I hope he will get a seat somewhere [in Formula 1]'. He actually avoids the answer in a very smooth way," Lammers told theNOS Formula 1 podcast.

The former Formula One driver is not sure if Williams can afford to get rid of Nicholas Latifi. The Canadian driver brings with him many millions."Either he [Capito] is a tremendously good comedian who can juggle and get around it, but from his words what he's saying now, I can't deduce anything that suggests he [De Vries] could go there," he says.

How much influence does Latifi have?

Lammers continues:"If you make agreements with people like Latifi for three years at a cost of many millions a year, then it is part of motorsport that when the deal is done and the money has come in, they want to get rid of the driver as quickly as possible. That sounds very unpleasant, but that's how it works. At this point I also notice that Capito wants to answer very neutrally so as not to upset Latifi either, I don't know how strong these contracts are and how adamant, but I have the impression Latifi wants to stay in the car for a while, but can they afford to take Latifi out and put Nyck in?"

The trade-off for Williams, according to those in the podcast, is whether De Vries will not bring in more World Championship points than Latifi, pushing the Grove-based team up places in the Constructors' Championship. The higher you finish, the more prize money, and that would potentially make the sponsorship money Latifi brings in a bit more irrelevant.