£45k-a-week driver told he has an ‘opportunity’ to race for Mercedes in 2025

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Sky Sports F1 pundit Naomi Schiff has suggested that Williams driver Alex Albon has a chance to drive for Mercedes in 2025.

Finding Lewis Hamilton’s replacement won’t be an easy task for Toto Wolff and he’s going to have plenty of drivers wanting to take the seven-time world champion’s place.

Speaking on Sky Sports F1, Schiff suggested that Alex Albon and good friend Lando Norris are likely to be in the conversation.

Schiff thinks Albon is in with a shot of Mercedes drive in 2025

The Formula 1 driver market was turned upside by Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari but the grid was already set to change a lot heading into next season.

More than half of the grid is out of contract in less than 12 months and a highly competitive Formula 2 grid could unearth several stars ready to make the step up.

Several drivers heading into this year knowing where they’ll be next season.

Lando Norris signed a long-term extension at McLaren but that hasn’t stopped him being linked with a move to join George Russell.

Alex Albon is also under contract at Williams until the end of 2025, but Naomi Schiff thinks he’ll be in the running to drive for Mercedes regardless.

His team didn’t perform particularly well in Bahrain and the £45k-a-week driver will know he’s reaching the point in his career where he should be regularly challenging for podiums.

As Hamilton has shown, just because a contract expires on a certain date, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to run that long.

It’s going to be fascinating to see if Albon has a similar clause in his Williams deal.

Mercedes in early stages of deciding Hamilton’s replacement

Host Simon Lazenby asked Schiff if Albon or Norris have the opportunity to replace Hamilton and she said: “Of course, of course he [Alex Albon] has an opportunity.

“Quite a few drivers on this grid have the opportunity.

“Whether Lando [Norris] regrets signing early, I don’t think he’ll ever be able to tell us how he truly feels about that, but he’s very confident on where McLaren’s at right now and where he thinks he can go with them.

“I personally think he may have signed slightly too early.

“There was still a couple of years left on his existing contract, so there was no real need to sign this early but maybe it’s a sign of solidarity to show that he really wants to go with the team.”

Albon will have to decide if Williams or Mercedes is his best bet for 2025 if Schiff is right and Silver Arrows decide he could be Hamilton’s replacement.

It’s hard to judge from his performance in Bahrain how he fared given his car’s struggles.

The Thai driver couldn’t even be compared to his teammate who stopped on track with an issue that forced him to change his steering wheel and ruined his race.

Things have to improve quickly for Williams otherwise Albon may be considering his options for next year.