Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff thinks his team could form an interesting partnership with Manor Racing, now that Lotus is being absorbed by Renault.
Without having to supply Lotus with an engine in 2016, Mercedes are free to look for another customer team and it’s believe that talks with Manor Racing are already at an advanced stage.
Wolff said that his team likes Manor a lot because “there is a competitive edge to the whole story if Manor gets the right chassis and the right engine it would be a pretty interesting narrative about how the team develops.”
Also, if the deal does go through, it’s possible that Mercedes reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein could get a seat at Manor, despite the fact that Manor’s current drivers (Stevens, Merhi, Rossi) all come with big sponsors.
When asked about that, Wolff said that it is a possibility, “but it needs many pieces of the jigsaw to come together, and it might well not happen. It could be an interesting scenario but the harsh financial realities mean Manor has to refinance themselves and raise the budget. I’m not sure we would be prepared to place a driver with budgets. They could probably raise [a budget] in the driver market if we were to supply engines as that could be an attractive offer for young drivers.”
Wolff is also happy with how Wehrlein has been performing for them in DTM, saying that “He has done a great job in testing for us and he is a very exciting young driver but I’d rather like to see how DTM pans out.”
If Mercedes do end up powering Manor (and it seems like we’re heading in that direction), the only team left in the dark will be Red Bull who are still deciding whether or not to quit Formula 1.
Story references: planetf1
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