Mercedes pushes young driver programme, Pascal Wehrlein new F1 reserve driver

The Mercedes F1 team has promoted 19 year old German Touring Car driver Pascal Wehrlein to be its reserve driver, as the championship leaders push ahead with a young driver programme.

Wehrlein won the DTM race at the weekend for Mercedes, becoming the youngest winner in the series' history, and is revealed as having been a key part of the behind the scenes staff at the F1 headquarters in Brackley this season, with over 30 days and 12,000km of driving in the simulator as part of the race weekend support. He has been fulfilling the role previously carried out by Sam Bird, who has moved on to Formula E with Virgin Racing and who finished 3rd in the opening round in Beijing on Sunday.

Wehrlein was evaluated in a real F1 car last week at Portimao in the Algarve, driving a 2012 Mercedes F1 car he covered 109 laps and 500km of running. The F1 rules, while banning F1 testing outside of official sessions, do allow teams to run drivers in two year old machines. Max Verstappen recently had a similar test in a 2012 Toro Rosso as part of his acclimatisation process ahead of his 2015 Grand Prix debut in Melbourne.

Wehrlein was very much in evidence around the Mercedes team at the recent Italian Grand Prix in Monza, wearing F1 team kit.

The Wehrlein move marks a further ramping up of Mercedes young driver programme. After the tug-of-war last month with Red Bull over the services of Verstappen, Mercedes has moved towards signing 17 year old Esteban Ocon, who currently leads Verstappen in the European F3 championship with two rounds remaining. Ocon has been part of the Gravity management programme, having been spotted and developed by Eric Boullier in his time with Gravity and Lotus F1 team. Although Boullier has now moved on to McLaren, he remains very excited about Ocon's potential.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff is similarly excited about Wehrlein, "We are delighted to officially welcome Pascal to the team after his successful test last week in Portugal," he said. "He has worked hard behind the scenes this year in our simulator, playing a very important role in our pre-race preparations. Aside from Nico and Lewis, he is the driver most familiar with all the procedures of our F1 W05 Hybrid and therefore the right choice for the role of reserve driver."