What the heck is going on at Williams?

Recent reports suggested that the fight for the Williams seat alongside Lance Stroll next year was suddenly won by Russian and Renault reserve Sergey Sirotkin. Rumours stated that his pace turned out to be stronger than Kubica's and that, tied in with his larger financial package, had left the Pole out of the running and that the young Russian was a shoe in for the drive...or had it? Because things have taken a rather interesting turn recently and nobody seems to know what the hell is going on.

An announcement was expected by many today, but reports then came out stating the decision has been delayed until January saying "Sirotkin's contract is understood to be close to being finalised with only minor details still to be ironed out.".

What those details are we don't know, but it is certainly clear there is more to this story than meets the eye. Felipe Massa has said in an interview with "Grande Premio" today that he had gathered that Kubica had a contract ready in Brazil and it was signed following the test in Abu Dhabi after the last race of the year. This was then effectively thrown out the window as Williams couldn't resist the $15 million that Sirotkin brought to the table. This certainly smacks of the Sauber and Giedo Van Der Garde dispute in 2015, when Sauber signed three drivers for their two cars for that season and Van Der Garde took the team to court in Australia. He won the fight, and the teams cars were effectively impounded by bailiffs on the opening day of practice whilst the dispute was sorted. It even got as far as Van Der Garde having a seat fitting as it looked like the team would have to jettison either Felipe Nasr or Marcus Ericsson for at least that weekend.  The dispute was eventually settled and the team proceeded with Nasr and Ericsson, but it shows what can happen if a team messes drivers around.

It then gets more interesting with rumors Kubica was at Williams this week for further negotiations, and former sponsor Lotos is reputedly behind him once again following his rallying days and could well bring even more money to Kubica's $8 million package. These reports are further enhanced by RACER reporting that "While the ongoing delay would suggest Kubica's chances have lessened, making Sirotkin the favorite for the seat, RACER understands there are still opposing views within the team on who should get the seat alongside Stroll."

This clearly suggests that there is a larger number of people in the team who feel Kubica should still be their driver. He impressed them massively with his feedback, knowledge and how well he embedded himself within the team during the test and it felt like he had been there for the whole year and not just a few days. It was similar reasons to this that lead to McLaren dropping Sergio Perez in 2013 and replacing him with Kevin Magnussen for 2014.

Maybe none of this is true, and that it will still be Sirotkin in that car. But I aren't so sure. Something odd is going on, and it could be sometime before we find out who is in that car next year. Because what looks to be a clear cut decision, may well turn out to be anything but that...