Wehrlein: 'I didn't have the experience for Mercedes'

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Pascal Wehrlein has conceded that he just didn't have the experience required to justify him succeeding Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.

"I knew I was one of the candidates, one of the possible drivers," said Wehrlein in an interview with Motorsport.com this week. "But one year of experience is not enough, it was quite clear.

Wehrlein said that the situation had been explained to him personally by the head of the Mercedes F1 team Toto Wolff.

“That is what he said," Wehrlein recalled. "He said, ‘We think it would be good for you to have more experience. One year was not enough. Especially in the second year, drivers are always making big progress.'

"I think Mercedes wants to have a ready driver and a perfect driver, who is at his limit.

"At the moment I am not on my limit where I could be, because of the experience, and that is quite clear."

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The 22-year-old won the 2015 DTM championship with Mercedes before switching to Formula One. He spent a year with Manor, and this season will race for Sauber.

Even though he can see the logic of Wolff's decision, Wehrlein said that he certainly wouldn't have turned down the opportunity if he'd been asked.

“If the chance is there, you have to take it,” he said. “I think it was not too much. Of course with one year of experience you are not at your limit and you will do some mistakes.

"If you have five years of experience in F1 or even more, you know, the mistakes – they will be a lot less than with one year," he added.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.