Pascal Wehrlein has revealed why Mercedes opted to sign Valtteri Bottas over him for the 2017 Formula 1 season.
When Nico Rosberg shocked the sport by retiring three days after becoming world champion in 2016, the German was in the position currently held by George Russell as the top young driver at the German manufacturer.
At the time, Wehrlein was also highly regarded, as he followed up becoming DTM’s youngest champion in 2015 with a strong rookie F1 season at Manor.
However, given the relationship between Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff and Bottas, who was the Finn’s manager, Valtteri was always seen as the most likely choice despite being signed at Williams.
And that’s how it turned out as the Grove-based team, who had dropped Felipe Massa to bring in Lance Stroll, simply brought back the Brazilian for one more season, allowing Bottas to make the move.
“Back then, a decision was made between Bottas and me, in the end, Bottas won the bid,” Wehrlein told SpeedWeek.
“The reason was that I had only been driving in Formula 1 for a year at the time and because of this, I had relatively little experience.
“Still, I would say it was a very good year. Manor was a team that had very little money and resources and couldn’t race a year later. We did a really great job and even scored points [finishing 10th at the Austrian Grand Prix].
“It was a good year, but one year of experience in Formula 1 isn’t much.”
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Another factor which Wehrlein didn’t mention but also played a significant role was Mercedes’ desire to bring calm to the garage after tensions had risen between Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
With Bottas that of course happened, whereas by bringing in a young hot-rod like Pascal, that could have seen a scenario similar to Red Bull had in 2014 or Ferrari did in 2019, when Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc took on Sebastian Vettel.
And Mercedes boss Wolff revealed a conversation he had with four-time world champion Alain Prost on that issue of ensuring team harmony.
“We have always been very transparent with each other,” the Austrian said of his relationship with the current Renault advisor.
“At the beginning of my stint with Mercedes, I remember a discussion with Alain Prost. I said to him, ‘what went wrong between you and [Ayrton] Senna [at McLaren]?’
“He said that sometimes, we didn’t know whether we had the support of the team or not, there was always politics involved.
“Now I don’t know if that is true because I was not part of that, and certainly they had a great era.
“But we don’t play politics. We play politics outside, but we don’t play any politics inside. I would never permit it.
“Transparency, being honest with each other, blaming the problem and not the person, and empowering are the values that are of utmost importance to us.
“That’s why it’s a good place, a fun place, but it’s also a pushing place.”
Of course, for Wehrlein his career never really reached the heights many were expecting as he spent one more year in F1 at Sauber before joining Ferrari as a development driver for 2018.
Now he races in Formula E, joining the Porsche team for the upcoming Season 7.
