Sauber set to announce second driver for 2019 "soon"

Sauber have confirmed they will announce their full 2019 driver line-up "soon". Kimi Raikkonen was announced as Charles Leclerc's replacement last week. The Finn penned a two-year deal extending his 16-year career. Marcus Ericsson is clearly keen on retaining his seat, but Ferrari are rumoured to be asking Sauber to include junior driver Antonio Giovinazzi.

The driver market has faced a wild shake-up over the past few months, arguably the biggest ever. It all started when Daniel Ricciardo announced his shock move to Renault. Sauber team boss Fred Vasseur alludes to this point and confirms the finalisation will be soon.

"The last two weeks for me have been a bit of a rush on the driver market," Vasseur said in an interview on planetF1.

"After Singapore, we will sit down with all the persons involved in the discussions, and we will take a decision quite soon because I think it's also good for the team to have a clear answer but it will be soon."

So far, only Mercedes have retained the same driver line-up for the 2019 season. How much of an advantage this will be between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, remains to be seen.

What we do know is, 2019 has a fresh look!