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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes that an early promotion to Mercedes could have destroyed Pascal Wehrlein's career.
Nico Rosberg retired days after claiming the world championship, putting Mercedes in a sticky situation to locate a new driver.
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"Obviously it was a shock," he told the French daily L'Equipe when asked about Rosberg's late retirement.
"But the departure of Nico will perhaps allow the emergence of a super talent. I prefer to see an opportunity rather than worry."
While Mercedes have received criticism for not promoting one of their junior drivers, Wolff thinks the team made the correct decision.
"Yes, we have Pascal and Esteban in our young driver programme," said Wolff. "But our idea is to develop them, not throw them unprepared into an inappropriate environment."
"He is fast and brilliant and he was always considered," Wolff said. "But he is in his development phase. He must be able to make mistakes and learn. And he could not have done that with us."
"Look at Sergio Perez, Heikki Kovalainen or Kevin Magnussen. They arrived too early at McLaren and were not well enough prepared."
When asked if the Wehrlein situation also applied to fellow Mercedes junior Esteban Ocon, he sad: "Yes, especially as he had already signed a contract with Force India. We do not want to destroy careers by moving too fast. I don't want to burn young people we believe in."
The Austrian also spoke about Max Verstappen and how even he had his development phase.
"We must not forget that even Max had his development phase. Red Bull prepared him perfectly, first with drives on Friday morning, then doing a season and a half at Toro Rosso."
"And even when he arrived at Red Bull, he did not have to fight for the world title or compete with a driver like Lewis Hamilton. He one won race versus nineteen for us, and was not always at the front."
"And he made mistakes, as in Monaco or Austin, which a young driver must be allowed to do. Because there are no second chances."
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Replies (3)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
He actually has a sort of valid point.
mclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
Think about it, the one getting destroyed can actual have be the dummyspitter. We are talking about the same p.o.s that looked ordinary next to Alonso, Button and Rosberg. The only times he has enjoyed success is when the car was capable of it on pure merit. He hasn't been able to anything like what Vettel has done in a Toro Rosso (Monza 2008) or what Alonso did in his Minardi days or heck even what these youngsters are doing now at backmarker and Redbull teams.
Face it both Rosberg and Hamilton are mediocre drivers compared against each other. They are no match for Alonso/Vettel type drivers. There is an incredibly high likelihood his stock will take a nose dive if some no name guy like Wehrlein comes in and mops the floor with dummyspitter. Thats the fear here. Bring in bottas and if he kicks whiny boy's butt left right and center, it can be spun by spin doctors like so "err yeah but Bottas is no slouch you know... he is also very fast so its ok to be beaten by someone of that caliber"
Puts a nice spin to it but try come up with a spin for say someone like Wehrlein doing that to dummyspitter, LOL imagine the carnage!. I'd pay top euro to watch that on pay-per-view.
bremgarten
Posts: 38
We agree once again.
Fast track someone at the wrong point in their career can produce the opposite effect of what was wanted.