Formula 1 awaits the announcement of Nico Rosberg’s replacement in Mercedes, which almost certainly will be Valtteri Bottas.
The 2016 F1 World Champion announced his retirement from F1 merely days after winning the title. That threw the team in chaos as the search for an experienced replacement was to happen in a matter of days.
Favorites for the position almost from the beginning were Bottas and Mercedes’ protégé Pascal Wehrlein. Bottas’ recruitment was difficult because his team Williams was unwilling to take the inexperienced Wehrlein. The Grove team allegedly managed to persuade Felipe Massa to postpone his retirement with a year. Williams will probably also get a substantial power unit discount as well as the opportunity to employ Paddy Lowe sooner than expected.
Meanwhile reports appeared that Wehrlein agreed to join Sauber for the 2017 season. According to motorsport.com Mercedes negotiated the German driver conditions. These talks were put on hold when Rosberg made his announcement at the beginning of December. The contract’s final details will be complete in the next few days. The official announcements of Mercedes, Williams and Sauber might happen at the same time.
Wehrlein’s move to Sauber leaves only two vacant places on the 2017 grid – in the Manor team
The team is currently negotiating a takeover with interested investors. Esteban Gutierrez is a frontrunner for one of the seats there. Felipe Nasr also is a contender, while Rio Haryanto works on a return after driving for Manor for the first half of 2016.
Meanwhile former F1 driver Jean Alesi warned Felipe Massa that his decision to drive for another season in Grand prix is a mistake.
“Honestly to me this is a mistaken decision. Felipe has stopped, he’s turned a page. And what if he discovers that the Williams isn’t quick?”, Alesi said for Gazzetta dello Sport.
The Frenchman explained as well his surprise and anger by Rosberg’s decision to leave the sport.
“Let’s say I didn’t really get the logic of announcing your retirement the same week in which you won the title. But then I thought about it some more and I thought of Senna, of how he said he would drive for Williams for nothing and how hard he worked to make it happen and then he died. Perhaps Nico just didn’t feel like racing anymore”, Alesi added.
