Who will replace Nico Rosberg at Mercedes?

The off-season promises to be much more intense than expected. In addition to a significant change in technical regulations, F1 will find itself in a situation it hasn’t experienced since 1994: not having its world champion defend his title. The announcement of Nico Rosberg’s immediate retirement has certainly caused a rare upheaval in the F1 grid, and there is no shortage of candidates naturally.

The first two natural candidates are obviously the Mercedes protégés, Pascal Wehrlein and Esteban Ocon. Since he was chosen to be promoted to Sahara Force India, we might think that the Frenchman is the favorite. But it should be remembered that it was the German who was called by Mercedes to finish testing on Tuesday when Lewis Hamilton felt unwell.

However, as Nico Rosberg’s decision was made on Monday evening, the Mercedes management already knew at that time and may therefore have wanted to evaluate their driver once more, especially on a car with 2017 specifications.

But other candidates could put forward their arguments. We can thus consider Valtteri Bottas, who is managed by Didier Coton. However, the latter’s structure is co-owned by a certain Toto Wolff… The Finn has been confirmed for an additional season at Williams, but the team has a Mercedes engine, and Toto Wolff knows the Grove team very well, having been a shareholder for several years. An agreement could thus be reached, even if the price demanded by Williams would certainly be enormous while they need to train the rookie Lance Stroll.

Similarly, Sergio Perez has also decided to extend with Sahara Force India, but the team has allowed him to leave if better opportunities arise. Thus, they agreed to let Nico Hülkenberg join Renault, despite an existing contract for 2017. The German might try to leave the French team even before joining them, but that seems quite unlikely. On the other hand, Sergio Perez could leverage his unanimously recognized driving skills as well as his significant financial backing, even for a top team.

A name that might also be circulating is Carlos Sainz. Indeed, Red Bull has decided to keep him at Toro Rosso for a third season, but the Spaniard’s prospects within the energy drink’s pipeline are somewhat limited, as Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen seem to be in place for many seasons. A transaction could therefore be negotiated between the different parties.

Finally, an alternative would be to attract a big name. Fernando Alonso has thus been at the center of speculation on Twitter. But the Spaniard’s contract with McLaren is certainly watertight against such eventualities. Moreover, it is unlikely that Mercedes would decide to retry the explosive combination of 2007 at McLaren, with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso on the same team.

In any case, the HR department of the team certainly hasn’t finished receiving spontaneous applications, more or less fanciful.

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr