Alfa Romeo near driver decision after Andretti "spotlight" gone

Alfa Romeo team principal Fred Vasseur has revealed the team will take a decision on its second driver "in the next couple of days".

Alfa Romeo is the only team with a vacant race seat for the 2022 season with a host of drivers linked to the seat including Alpine Academy drivers Guanyu Zhou and Oscar Piastri.

"I had the question from Sky Germany and they asked me who will sit next to Valtteri [Bottas] and I said ‘In my office, it will be me but in the garage, it will be another story’," joked Vassuer.

“Now that we are a little bit less under the spotlight for different reasons, we will take the decision in the next couple of days, probably after Brazil.”

Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi said on Friday of Zhou and Piastri: "It’s all under discussion at the moment so I can’t really disclose but there’s going to be outcomes for the both of them in the following weeks, I guess."

Despite the timescales of Rossi and Vasseur appearing to match, Vasseur refused to "start something crazy" by namedropping.

“He is not taking risks by saying the ‘next few weeks’ or ‘next few months’," added Vasseur. "At least by Barcelona ’22, we will know!”

Although linked with numerous drivers, Alfa Romeo has not yet ruled out the possibility of retaining Antonio Giovinazzi for a fourth campaign.

"The decision won’t be made on the last 24 hours, it will be the global picture of the results, the evolution of the results and I think the pressure is the same for everybody in the paddock," explained Vasseur.

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