Wehrlein: not enough experience for Mercedes

Pascal Wehrlein explained that he understood the reasons why Mercedes preferred to choose Valtteri Bottas to replace Nico Rosberg who retired at the end of 2016 after winning the world title. The 2015 champion of DTM was placed with Sauber F1 Team alongside Marcus Ericsson after playing for Manor F1 Team during his first season in the discipline.

“It is clear that one year of experience is not enough, commented Pascal Wehrlein. Toto wolff (Mercedes Motorsport executive chairman) explained that it would be good for me to have more experience, that one season was not enough, and that drivers always progress a lot in their second season. »

“Mercedes wants a driver who is ready and at his best, which I am not at the moment. This is clearly due to my lack of experience. We can sometimes make mistakes, especially when it comes to settings. We make a lot fewer mistakes when we have 5 or more seasons under our belt”, added Pascal Wehrlein.

The German achieved the last time of winter testing in Barcelona by completing only 192 laps on the Catalunya circuit. The Sauber driver missed the first week of testing due to his accident suffered last January during the Race of Champions in Miami (Florida), forcing him to take a break.

Discover the analysis of the second week of F1 testing in Barcelona in AUTO issue 2105hebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version, and from Wednesday on newsstands.