© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff strongly indicates Nico Hulkenberg will become Mercedes’ reserve driver, although they “didn’t put pen to paper”.
Hulkenberg lost his seat in Formula 1 after 2019, but stood in for Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll at Racing Point on two occasions in 2020, after both contracted COVID-19.
Ahead of the 2021 season Toto Wolff said it’s only a matter of time before Mercedes agrees a deal with the German for a reserve driver position. Now Wolff again confirms it is all but certain.
“There is a situation that our two reserve drivers, Stoffel [Vandoorne] and Nyck [de Vries], are racing in Formula E and there are certain races where there is an overlap,” the Austrian said.
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“I think Nico knows the current generation of Formula 1 cars and the tyres, and it would be good to have him in the line-up as a solution, maybe to be shared with other teams.
“He’s a known quantity and well respected, so it would be good, but it’s not yet… we didn’t put pen to paper.”
Speaking of reserve drivers, McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl confirmed his team will once again share Mercedes’ reserve drivers in a continuation of the 2020 driver-sharing agreement.
“On our side, we will do the same again as last year,” Seidl explained.
“We will have an agreement again with Toto, with Mercedes, to use the reserve drivers in case of an emergency, and we’re happy with that.”
