It is looking increasingly unlikely that Formula One fans will see Pascal Wehrlein on the grid in 2018.
The 23-year-old who is part of the Mercedes stable, made his Formula One debut at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix and enjoyed two full seasons driving for the now defunct Manor Racing and last season with Sauber.
He has finished in the points on three occasions during his 40 race career, the first for Manor at the Austrian Grand Prix [10th] and the two other occasions coming in 2017 for Sauber at the Spanish Grand Prix [8th] and in Azerbaijan [10th].
But he has been a victim of Sauber’s tie-up with Ferrari which has seen the team become Alfa Romeo Sauber.
Ferrari development driver and Formula Two Champion Charles Leclerc will take his seat.
Wehrlein still holds an outside chance of taking the Williams seat left behind following Felipe Massa’s retirement, but that looks set to be handed to Sergey Sirotkin.
So it looks as though he will be returning to DTM [German Touring Cars] for 2018.
Discussing what could be his final season in Formula One he told motorsport.com: ‘In terms of result, [Barcelona] was the best race of the year but probably in the second half of the season I had better races, but you couldn’t see it,’
He added: ‘Even if we had a good race in the second half of the season, you couldn’t see it because the gap was just too big – for example, in Suzuka, I was lapped by the second-last guys.
‘I’m quite happy in the end with five points. Not all of the races have been good as I wished but I think in general we did what we could do.’
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