Legal drinking age reason for delay of Williams driver announcement

Today (3 November) Williams will confirm the worst kept secret in the paddock, namely that Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll will drive for the team in 2017.

The delay in the announcement was because Stroll only turned 18 on 29 October, thus any date before then would be inappropriate and illegal to announce a teenage driver sponsored by Martini.

When seen in the F1 paddock this past season Stroll has always worn Williams team gear without Martini branding. As the legal drinking age in most countries is 18 the deal can now be announced.

Bottas, who was robustly courted by Renault, will lead Williams for another year. His deal reportedly for one season only as he is one of the candidates earmarked to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari in 2018.

Stroll has excelled in this year's Formula 3 championship, winning the title convincingly and in the latter half of the season has racked up massive mileage in a Williams run $20-million test programme.

His father, clothing billionaire Lawrence Stroll has bankrolled his son's racing career, which included a spell with the Ferrari Driver Academy.