Team Mercedes will wait until the New Year before making any announcement on a replacement for retired Formula One world Champion Nico Rosberg, with Finland’s Valtteri Bottas still leading in the race as one of the favourites. As per a team spokesman who said on Thursday that nothing was planned between now and Jan.3 and there was no significance in the latter date either other than it marking the end of the holidays.
Currently Bottas is bookmaker’s favorite however, neither Williams team nor Mercedes has confirmed any approach that has been made for this appointment. One thing is for sure that Rosberg surprises both his team and the sport by making a sudden announcement of his retirement that to just five days after winning the championship in Abu Dhabi at the end of November and leaving Mercedes in a difficult position. Now, team Mercedes who is a dominant team and have won both titles for the past three years in a row have the most desirable seat on the grid vacant and the shortage of experienced contenders is making this can’t seat filled looks like a difficult game at this time. Double world champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren and Ferrari’s four times title holder Sebastian Vettel has ruled out their candidature for this premium position.
Alonso’s manager Flavio Briatore told Italy’s Gazzetta Dello Sport last week “We have an agreement with McLaren and we are going to respect that.”
The sport’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone said this week that the sport needed Mercedes to get the strongest possible candidate to prevent Hamilton running away with a fourth championship.
“I don’t think anybody is going to beat Lewis,” he told Sky Sports television.
“Nobody would want to buy tickets and go to watch a race or watch on television Lewis disappearing from us when the lights go off, and probably lapping the field a couple of times.
“It would be bad for everybody and bad for Lewis as well, because I think he wants to win fair and wants to beat somebody.”
Bottas,27, is under contract to Mercedes-powered Williams but has had management ties to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff since he entered the sport. As per the reports presented by BBC over the weekend Wolff had offered Williams a 10 million euro (($10.42 million) cut in their engine bill returning for allowing Bottas to leave, with that initial approach rejected but negotiations are still going on. However, team Mercedes have a German reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein, who raced for Manor this year under contract and immediately available to fill the space.
