Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Lynn expects F1 opportunities at end of 2016

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Alex Lynn believes there will be opportunities for a number of young drivers to break in to F1 at the end of this season as he eyes a race seat at Williams.

The Williams development driver will take part in his second year of GP2 this season having finished sixth in the drivers’ championship in 2015. Targeting the title this year, Lynn wants to move up to race in F1 next season and believes the example set by a number of young talents to recently earn a seat - as well as the likes of Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button being out of contract - will open up more opportunities at the end of the year.

“I feel quite lucky that I feel this year could be the year that everything starts to change,” Lynn said. “I think it’s really helped by the fact you’ve got guys like Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Stoffel [Vandoorne] doing a great job in his first race; it’s proving all the time that the guys coming from the junior categories can compete straight away and fight with the big guys and previous world champions. So I think this is the year that everything could change.

“I know if I can do the business it’s going to give me the best chance possible, and how the driver market looks like it could play out I am hopefully going to get a chance.”

And with both Williams drivers currently out of contract at the end of this season, Lynn feels it gives him a better chance of staking a claim for one of the seats.

“Yeah it does to be honest. I know that if I can get a good start to my season it could put a bit of pressure on the powers that be to know that I want to be there. I’ve made no bones to the team that I want to be racing that car next year and that’s all I’m here to do is show that I’m the guy that they want and need.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.