No Super Formula campaign for Wehrlein

Pascal Wehrlein will not contest the top Japanese open wheeler series Super Formula in 2018. Earlier, when it was announced that the ousted Sauber driver would be returning to DTM with Mercedes, he left the door open to a parallel Super Formula campaign.

But a Mercedes source told Speed Week: "We have decided together that Pascal will concentrate on the DTM and his activities in Formula 1. His calendar is already very full."

For instance, in addition to the full DTM calendar, Wehrlein will travel to every overseas F1 race this year to be Mercedes' official reserve driver. However, he said: "I never associate racing with stress. I've been doing this since I was a kid. Of course I don't like to sit on a plane from 12 hours and suffer jetlag all the time, but that's just part of it.

His F1-related jetlag, however, won't result in any actual driving, with Mercedes confirming that Wehrlein will not do any Friday practice sessions: "Of course it's always good to perform well in Friday practice, but in 90 minutes you can't show much anyway," Wehrlein said. "I associate many more beautiful moments with winning DTM races than I do with performing well in a Friday practice session."