Let’s see all the variables.
This year Williams’ car seems to be more competitive than last years. This change of direction is also seen thanks to the talent of the young Thai driver Alexander Albon, but not thanks to the first driver of the squad: Nicholas Latifi. As said in the article “Williams valuta il licenziamento di Latifi per metà stagione. Ecco chi sarebbe a sostituirlo“, published online on the newspaper “f1inGenerale”, Williams is considering the idea of firing the Canadian driver, this is because Latifi’s start of the year doesn’t seem to be as brilliant as his teammate’s, who took a two-year break from F1 after the firing from RedBull racing. This not so brilliant start of the year from Latifi suggests that he could not be reliable (also after seeing the results of the past years r) and that he is not good for a back-field team which is trying to survive in F1 as Williams racing. But firing Latifi is not easy, this is because of the big sponsors that he brings to the team (Sofina and Lavazza).
The writer of the article says that a possible substitute for Latifi could be Nick De Vries, the 2019 Formula 2 Champion, and current Formula E Champion, that has not been able to compete in the major league of F1.
I personally don’t think that De Vries is much interested in accepting a contract at Williams, considering his success in the Formula E series, but who knows, anything can change at any time in motorsport. One thing is sure, Latifi has not performed as expected from Williams since his arrival at the team: the driver has always been outperformed by all his teammates, for example the young George Russell (who is now driving for Mercedes AMG Petronas), also he cost the team millions of dollars since he crashed many times and has had many times the chance to score points, but he has always failed (see Russell’s podium in Belgium 2021).
Summing up: Williams needs the sponsor that the driver brings in to survive, but if the costs that he also brings to them are more than the earnings, I personally think that he should be fired, and maybe replaced by some young talents coming from the F2 Championship.