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Boss of Mercedes Toto Wolff has revealed that Valtteri Bottas' main sponsor Antti Aarnio-Wihuri was the ultimate reasoning behind the Finn's switch to Mercedes. At the end of the 2016 season, Nico Rosberg shockingly retired after winning his first world title.
After weeks of speculation, Bottas was announced as his replacement, however for a number of weeks it appeared to be nip and tuck between the former Williams driver and Mercedes junior Pascal Wehrlein. While it was believed that Wehrlein missed out due to his lack of experience, there could be a deeper reasoning behind the final decision.
"Yes, without it, we would have put Pascal Wehrlein with Lewis Hamilton," Wolff is quoted by the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat. "Antti made is possible for us to move Valtteri to us. Valtteri certainly has other very important partners, such as Kemppi, but Antti enabled this agreement with Mercedes," Wolff revealed.
Mercedes have two junior drivers competing in Formula 1, with Esteban Ocon currently racing at Force India. Their third junior is George Russell who is competing in GP3, a series that supports Formula 1 weekends.
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Replies (2)
Login to replyf1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Interesting, I wonder how the standings would look if Wehrlein was at Merc
k.gandhiin
Posts: 17
Pascal is definitely faster than Marcus, hence Pascal is never a bad choice. But he needs to have a good attitude, the reason for not getting Force India seat.