Pascal Wehrlein

So German born Pascal Wehrelein looks set to be the next new driver on the F1 grid joining the Manor team. If the PR is to be believed he's joining the Manor team at a good time as they set to jump up to the midfield pack. We have been promised that before though. As for Wehrelein himself most fo us will know him as the Mercedes test driver and DTM Champion but will have seen very little of him in single seaters. Thats mainly because Merc took him out of single seaters fairly quickly and he last did a full season of single seaters in 2012 doing mainly F3. His result were top end but not overly impressive but Mercedes obviously saw something.

Wahrelein is very much one of Toto Wolffs men and I think that has helped him a lot in finally landing him a drive where previous Merc test drivers (Sam Bird etc) have failed to do so. He is quite obviously quick in DTM but there have been accusations that he was shepherded to the title in 2015 by his team mates. He is quite obviously a quick driver but it will be interesting to see how quickly he adapts to F1. The last driver to jump straight from DTM to F1 was Paul Di Resta and the only other driver to do it before that was Christijan Albers (remember him? thought not) so its not a proven success rate.

Having read some of his twitter feed he seems a nice enough guy and whilst they'll talk about him being a young German its worth remembering that he has a dual nationality as he was actually born in Mauritius. That technically makes him the first F1 driver from the content of Africa for as long as I can remember. I suspect we only have South Africans prior to that.

Will eb itnerested to see how he goes, I'm slightly skeptical but am willing to be proved wrong. Anyone got any thoughts?

 

[RasputinLives]

Yeah because all racing drivers who sign 3 year contracts always stick to them. No sorry it's a silly move.

 

[Il_leone]

Well I think Pascal can probably see Toto's favourite is his nemesis Esteban Ocon. So if there was one Mercedes seat up for grabs it would go to Ocon then the other seat if Hamilton gave it up would either be Vettel, or Verstappen you'd think. Now Russell has probably jumped ahead of him in the queue as well

So Wehrlein really has managed to burn a lot of bridges because neither Force India or Williams want him even if it meant getting cheaper engines speaks volumes

 

[RasputinLives]

So the Wehrlein story takes an extra twist today when it's revealed his has signed to drive for Mahindra in Formula E. I am now totally confused what is going on with Pascal. Leaving the Merc stable because they wanted him to do Formula E and then signing for a Formula E team who have less budget than the Merc one will have .

I'm confused.

 

[Greenlantern101]

I didn't particuarly like him but he did marginally out perform Ocon and Erricson. He should probably get another chance.

 

[gethinceri]

He should probably **** off. Nobody wants him in F1

 

[F1Brits_90]

This is really odd decision. The only thing I think that may explain it that be was he still in contention for toro rosso & since has been ruled out. Otherwise that man needs a new agent

 

[Il_leone]

I saw this as well, I suppose he thought he had a chance of landing a Toro Rosso seat if he left Mercedes but then he's gone to Mahindra racing so I expect him to be in FE for at least two seasons now

It looks like the gamble has not paid off

Greenlantern101 Unfortunately Pascal's ego seems to have upsetted both Force India and Williams to not want to take him whilst every team Ocon has driven for. The engineers always seems to warm to him

and any half decent driver should be able to beat Ericsson even Stroll unless he is really that rubbish