Paris (AFP)

With the announcement on Tuesday of the continuation in 2020 of the same duos of drivers at Red Bull and Toro Rosso, the next season of Formula 1 will oppose almost the same protagonists as the previous one. Before the big maneuvers in 2021?

The Thai Alexander Albon has been confirmed at Red Bull alongside the Dutchman Max Verstappen, like the French Pierre Gasly and the Russian Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso.

These are eight of the ten teams on the set that will not change drivers next year.

Only Renault, which prefers the Frenchman Esteban Ocon to Germany's Nico Hulkenberg, and Williams, who has yet to announce the replacement of the Polish Robert Kubica, will make changes.

Canadian Formula 2 driver Nicholas Latifi is in pole position to settle in this latest available tub.

This conservatism, however, is not surprising in many respects.

By 2019, only Mercedes and Haas had retained the same pairs of drivers and four novices (Britain's George Russell at Williams and Lando Norris at McLaren, Italy's Antonio Giovinazzi at Alfa Romeo Racing and Alexander Albon at Toro Rosso) had landed.

Above all, many pilots have contracts running until the end of 2020 to coincide with the entry into force in 2021 of the new technical, sporting and commercial regulations for F1 presented at the end of October.

We expect more movement, especially among the headliners, with the six-time British world champion Lewis Hamilton at the end of contract at Mercedes, the German Sebastian Vettel and the Dutchman Max Verstappen in the same situation at Ferrari and Red Bull respectively.

- Albon acclaimed -

On the side of the sister teams Red Bull and Toro Rosso, we finally also favored continuity in 2020, after the exchange of tubs between Gasly and Albon during the summer break.

Promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull last winter, the Frenchman was demoted in the summer because of disappointing results, to the benefit of the Thai.

"Alex has been very successful since his debut with the team at the Belgian Grand Prix (September 1st, ed) and his results - seven GPs in the top 6 - speak for themselves", justifies the "main team" of Red Bull Christian Horner.

"It's impossible to deny this level of consistency and, with a growing reputation as a tenacious and fiercely committed rider, Alex has proven he deserves to continue his progression with Red Bull," he said.

The 23-year-old, who is playing his first season in F1, took part in 19 GPs with a fourth place finish in Japan and a fifth place on the grid in Mexico. Since his promotion, he has scored 68 points against 54 to his teammate Verstappen.

At Toro Rosso, Gasly (23 years old), hired in 2017, and Kvyat (25 years old), who returned in 2019 after a year of absence and a run-of-the-mill run between the Italian team and Red Bull, "realized very good performances this season, "explains the" main team "Franz Tost.

They "proved during their years in F1 that they were very competitive, able to exploit the potential of their cars and give valuable feedback to improve them," adds the Austrian.

© 2019 AFP