Movements – or lack of - elsewhere in the driver market

Having been built up as a year of change, the driver market might actually be fairly quiet after all. Nico Rosberg is all but certain to stay at Mercedes (Niki Lauda, the team chairman, confirmed this week that a two-year deal is “pretty much done”). It makes sense for the German and the team.

Red Bull are all set with Ricciardo and Verstappen, as are Force India with Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

As far as half-decent drives goes, that just leaves Williams and an improving McLaren. Valtteri Bottas’s form has faded, which means Ferrari have lost interest. The Finn is likely to stay at Williams.

But Felipe Massa’s chances are very slim. He brings next to no finance and his salary is higher than you would think, or Williams would want (some suggest it was as much as £9 million with bonuses for finishing third in the constructors’ championship last year).