Following Nico Rosberg’s shock announcement of his retirement from Formula One, Pascal Wehrlein is likely first in line to replace him.
The German is currently in flux over his future with a move to Sauber touted following Manor losing out to the Swiss team to 10th in the Constructors’ championship.
Wehrlein has always been seen as the man being prepared for a future drive with Mercedes and now that a seat has opened, the manufacturer must show faith in their man.
It had seemed as though Esteban Ocon had jumped ahead of Wehrlein in the battle of the Mercedes juniors, with his performances for Manor since the Belgian Grand Prix earning the Frenchman a seat with Force India for 2017. it makes sense to give the 22-year-old a chance.
Therefore, with the teenager set to continue to development in the midfield, it makes sense to give Pascal the first chance to prove his worth.
Of course, Rosberg’s shock retirement has started a firestorm of opinions and options on social media. Unsurprisingly the most common name mentioned is Fernando Alonso with the Spaniard desperate to win a third world title and currently finding himself in an uncompetitive McLaren.
Mercedes would be wise, however, to make a decisive long-term choice. There’s no point in a championship-winning team going for what would simply be a stop-gap option before promoting a young driver later.
Is Wehrlein 100% ready to step into a championship-contending car? Probably not. But then neither was Daniil Kvyat or Max Verstappen when they made the jump to Red Bull, yet one beat Daniel Ricciardo in the standings in 2015 and the other won his first race with the team.
It would be a steep learning curve for the former DTM champion, and there are concerns over whether he has the absolute right attitude to succeed, but a year or so alongside Lewis Hamilton, learning the ropes at the front, would put Wehrlein in a much better place to take over as the lead driver when the Briton also decides to hang up his helmet.
He has already shown promise taking an uncompetitive Manor and scoring a point for the team on merit in Austria. Wehrlein also had a very notable performance in Bahrain finishing 13th in just in his second race.
In qualifying, in particular, Wehrlein has impressed making Q2 on six occasions and out-qualifying his teammate at 16 of the 21 races.
The claim that a driver is either too young or too inexperienced to make such a jump is now simply a myth and certainly, Wehrlein would be a young, hungry lion keen to prove his worth compared to a long-standing veteran out for a glory run.
A gamble on Wehrlein isn’t any less of a risk than hiring a tried and tested veteran who hasn’t been at the sharp end in recent years.
Times are a changing in F1 with the next generation of drivers stepping up to the plate and Mercedes would be foolish not to recognise that as a team that has become very good at keeping its finger on the pulse of the sport.
Therefore, even if Ocon was the team’s new preferred choice as a future star, give the man they have trusted every third driver duty to over the past few years the chance he does very much deserve. I think they’ll find that Pascal won’t let them down.
