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The delay of an official announcement from Williams is a little concerning. The talk is that Williams are waiting for a Russian briefcase (or two) to arrive at Grove HQ. Or, 'finalising contract details' as so put by various media sources.
Why the concern? Sirotkin's Russian supplied briefcases have failed to show up on more than one occasion during his time in F1. And the ones that have shown up, are apparently only half full at times.
Anyone remember the Russian rescue deal for Sauber in 2013? It was announced by Sauber mid 2013 that Russian backers will partner with Sauber, and as part of that deal, Sirotkin would get FP1 sessions in the second half of 2013, and a full-time drivers seat for 2014. The first lot of briefcases failed to show up, and so Sirotkin did not get any FP1 sessions with Sauber in 2013. He was still in the running for a full-time seat in 2014 however. Fast forward to February 2014, and no briefcase showed up in time at Hinwil, so lost his promised full-time seat, and was relegated to Sauber's test driver for 2014. But he had just enough funds for his one and only FP1 outing at the 2014 Russian GP.
Towards the end of 2014, rumours had it that Sirotkin was in negotiations with Force India for a reserve/test driver role for 2015. In January of 2015 it was reported that Force India had an "agreement in principle" with Sirotkin, pending payment conditions were met prior to the first test at Jerez on February 1. Well.. the briefcase did not arrive in time, and Force India withdrew from the first test of 2015 as a result of lack of funds. They were depending on Sirotkin's briefcase to conduct the test. Talks regarding Sirotkin's role at Force India didn't progress any further, and Sirotkin was out of the picture at FI, and out of F1 for 2015.
In April of 2016, just prior to the Russian GP, Renault F1 announced Sirotkin as their test driver with a "long-term development plan". The deal (although not officially confirmed), was rumoured to be for 6 FP1 outings during the 2016 season. Again, the Russian briefcases failed to arrive in time, and Sirotkin only got 2 FP1 outings (Russia and Brazil). He also drove during the in-season test at Silverstone.
In 2017 Sirotkin remained with Renault and they announced that he had been promoted to "third and reserve driver with an enhanced role" with the team. Maybe some of the payment conditions were met and a briefcase finally arrived at Enstone (??). But Sirotkin only did 4 FP1 sessions last year (hard to call that an "enhanced" role). Renault and Sirotkin parted ways in September 2017.
With a history of non-payments, or late payments, Sirotkin is a very risky choice for Williams, in more ways than one. Let's hope Williams have performed their due diligence, and don't end up in a worse financial situation than they're already in. The Russian briefcases supporting Sirotkin are reported to be "dirty" money with Putin's fingerprints all over it. That in itself, is another issue altogether.
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