Wehrlein would welcome Manor stay despite Force India link

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Pascal Wehrlein insists he would be happy to stay at Manor in 2017 despite being linked with a move to Force India next season.

Following Nico Hulkenberg's decision to join Renault a year before his contract was due to expire, Force India has a vacancy next year. As a Mercedes customer team, the Force India seat has led to speculation either Wehrlein or fellow Mercedes young driver Esteban Ocon will join Sergio Perez, but the German insists he would like to stay with Manor.

"Definitely I would be happy," Wehrlein said. "Of course the target is to arrive in the best position possible and if there is an opportunity to win a race, of course I want to win the race, but let’s see what happens next year.

"As I said I would be happy to stay here as well. I think the team has made big progress since last year and also this year since the first race, which I am really happy about.

"I think for next year there is another possibility to make a big step and it would be a nice story to join Manor, it is hard to say they had worst car, but on average this year it was like that, but we took the opportunities when they were there and compared to last year, the gap to the second-last team was two seconds and it is not the same team anymore.

"It has changed a lot and has made big progress. To stay here and make another step next year would also be a nice thing to do. I am involved in the things that will happen next year and the development. Let’s see. I don’t know at the moment. Truly I know zero about next year, so no idea."

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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.