Wehrlein trying to ignore Rosberg contract situation

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Pascal Wehrlein says he is not paying too much attention to Nico Rosberg's contract situation to make sure he is not distracted at Manor.

Rosberg is out of contract at the end of this season and was involved in a controversial collision with team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix. Wehrlein was called up to drive for Mercedes the day after Rosberg during the in-season test in Barcelona and admits he is aware there could be a seat available next season.

“Yeah there could be an opportunity but also in the end I cannot influence it, I can only influence it with my own performance on track," Wehrlein said. "Otherwise I don’t think about it because it distracts you if you think too much about things you cannot influence.”

Asked if he is being seen as the next Hamilton, Wehrlein acknowledged Mercedes' faith in him but doesn't feel he is being compared to either driver.

“I don’t think I’m seen as the new Lewis. I mean, I’m seen as a future Mercedes driver but not as the new Lewis Hamilton.

“I won the DTM championship last year for Mercedes, I’m a Mercedes junior, I’m reserve driver for Mercedes so it’s not too far away that if I do a very good job on track then one day I could drive for Mercedes.”

And Wehrlein dismissed rumours he could have replaced Hamilton this weekend in Monaco, with an Italian publication reporting the defending champion could miss the race.

“That was never the discussion. Of course after the race maybe there were some rumours and then afterwards I did the test so maybe that’s way people talked about that. But at the moment they are the best drivers and they are winning the championship so why should they replace one?”

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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.