Alonso Retires: What This Means For the Rest of the Grid

With the announcements of Fernando Alonso's retirement and Daniel Ricciardo's move to Renault, the rumor mill has been kicked up into overdrive for who is going where in 2019. There are now two seats that will be very sought after by the rest of the grid, and I'm going to dissect the fact from the fiction and predict who will be driving for which teams next season.

Fernando's replacement:

Joe Holland did a great article on this earlier, so please check that out if you haven't already. Despite McLaren's uncompetitive car, this is a seat that a lot of drivers are after, with everybody from Force India's Esteban Ocon to reserve driver Lando Norris linked with it. For me, the one who will be racing in papaya next season will be Alonso's biggest fan, Carlos Sainz. Sainz is currently a Renault driver but has been confirmed to not be racing for the French outfit in 2019. The Spaniard's other option is Red Bull, who loaned him to Renault, but due to a fractured relationship with Max Verstappen, I believe that the Milton Keynes outfit won't choose to add Chilli, especially with the memories of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel still fresh in the team's memory.

So, who goes to Red Bull?

Red Bull love to promote from within, so that leaves one man in the frame.

There have been two standout candidates for the second Red Bull seat ever since Ricciardo announced he was leaving the team, the aforementioned Sainz and Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso. Gasly has performed superbly in his first full season of F1 racing, producing standout drives in Bahrain and Hungary and out-performing the much more experienced (albeit in different categories) Brendon Hartley throughout the campaign. At 22, he's got huge potential, just like Sainz, but the key difference being that his mind will mesh better with Verstappen in the senior team. That coupled with the fact that I don't believe he'd mind being a number 2 (at least in 2019) makes the Frenchman the obvious choice.

What about Hartley and Vandoorne? Can they keep their seats?

Stoffel Vandoorne has been

rumoured

to be out the door at McLaren at the season's end.

Speculation about Stoffel Vandoorne and Brendon Hartley has been rife after just a few races of the season. Both have been outshone by their teammates (Alonso and Gasly, respectively) and have been under pressure during that time. Alonso has supported his Belgian teammate via the media but that hasn't stopped the rumours, especially with Lando Norris doing so well in Formula 2. However, I believe that since McLaren has been through so much upheaval of late, Stoffel could continue on as their second driver, albeit on increasingly thin ice.

So that leaves Hartley, even with two seats available at Toro Rosso, could he continue on in the sport? At 28, he doesn't exactly fit the mold of a "junior" team driver, and his performances have been lackluster throughout 2018. The New Zealander's saving grace could well be the fact that Red Bull's junior team doesn't currently have anyone good enough to replace him. Nirei Fukuzumi is the closest to F1, competing in F2, but the Japanese driver is finding it tough going, placing 18th in this year's feeder series so far and unlikely to be able to obtain a Super Licence.

If Hartley is safe, who joins him? Even with Honda pushing for a Japanese driver in the Toro Rosso, Red Bull won't allow Fukuzumi even if the FIA do. We've already mentioned him, that man Lando Norris. It may sound a little left-field, but the Brit has been superb in F2 this season and McLaren will want him in an F1 seat sooner rather than later. The Woking team could offer Norris this themselves, but with an opportunity to see how the British driver gets on in someone else's car (instead of risking their own) is a safer option.

In summary, Hartley and Vandoorne could be thanking Alonso for saving their F1 careers.

And the Rest of the Grid?

Kimi Raikkonen is one of the key pieces in the driver market puzzle for 2019.

What happens next in the driver market is down to the man you see above. Depending on whether Kimi Raikkonen calls it a day or not will shuffle the pack even more than it already is. Sebastian Vettel wants him to stay, but Charles Leclerc's mega rookie season has catapulted the Ferrari youngster into contention for a top seat in F1 at the tender age of 20. There are still unknowns about who will partner Lance Stroll at Force India (or whatever their new name will be) in 2019 and questions still surround Romain Grosjean's job security in the Haas.

In short, buckle up because we're on a bumpy ride for the rest of the year, both on and off the track