George Russell will be staying at Williams in 2021 after the team announced an unchanged line-up on Friday.

In recent weeks, speculation had linked Sergio Perez to the seat currently held by the Mercedes junior, leading to some awkward questions in Portugal.

The reason for the renewed uncertainty was the takeover by Dorilton Capital back in August, which meant the contracts held under the Williams family could have been voided.

However, after inadvertently muddling the picture even more last weekend, interim team boss Simon Roberts cleared it up at Imola.

“I probably caused a bit of confusion last week,” he said. “I’m sorry about that. We didn’t really want to comment on the driver position.

“As George said Claire made the announcement earlier this year and nothing’s changed. This is our driver line-up for this year and next year.

"We’re very happy with them and we look forward to continuing to work with them.”

The confirmation means Russell no longer has to worry about the prospect of a year off the grid at Mercedes, as Toto Wolff was hinting when the uncertainty began.

At the same time, Nicholas Latifi will also stay for his second season in F1.

As for Perez, it leaves him with just Haas and the two Red Bull teams as potential options for 2021, although in all likelihood, the seat alongside Max Verstappen might be the Mexican's only hope.