Mercedes driver Pascal Wehrlein will be racing in Formula E next year with Mahindra racing, with the move being announced this morning.
Wehrlein was in line for a Formula 1 seat as well, at least that’s what the reports suggested, but when Williams announced George Russell for 2019, Wehrlein’s F1 hopes had ended.
Now, he has secured a drive in Formula E and would be hoping that his Formula E performances somehow pave way for a Formula 1 seat.
The announcement from Formula E was compounded with a dig taken by them at Formula 1 for gifting seats to drivers with money and not talent.
Lance Stroll is set to get a seat at Racing Point Force India for 2019, thanks to his father Lawrence Stroll, who bailed Force India out of administration.
Williams too have been guilty of handing seats to drivers that bring some financial backing with them. The major reason why Sirotkin and Stroll were selected for the 2018 season was because they had sound financial backing.
Now, for the 2019 seat too, Kubica has been asked to bring in more sponsorship so as to secure his drive.
Ocon too was asked to shell out close to $40 million in order to secure his seat(according to reports).
On the Pascal Wehrlein announcement, a fan had commented that Formula E seemed like the refugee place for talented F1 drivers who couldn’t get a seat in F1.
The official Formula E account responded by saying ‘somewhere with a brighter future for the best drivers who don’t need to buy their way in’.
Do you think Formula E will become a refuge for talented F1 drivers in the future
