Former Formula One Driver Pascal Wehrlein will leave Mahindra Racing with immediate effect after a post on his social media account.
9th June 2020
After being dropped from Sauber F1 at the end of 2017, Wehrlein returned to DTM with Mercedes in 2018. After that season, Wehrlein and Mercedes split with the German making the switch to Formula E with Mahindra for Season 5 2018/19 Season.
At the end of the season, he finished in 12th with 58 points with one Pole Position and a second place finish at the Santiago ePrix.
Currently, he sits in 14th place with 14 points, having scored in two of the five races before the suspension of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a short statement on his Instagram story, Wehrlein revealed that as of 8th of June, he and Mahindra had parted ways. Wehrlein stated: "My interest was to finish the season but the current situation didn't allow so."
As well as racing in Formula E, Wehrlein also acts as a Development Drive for Ferrari in Formula One.
It is thought that his exit from Mahindra will pave the way for him to sign for the Porsche FE Team. Newcomers Porsche, joined the electric racing series this season and currently sit in 9th in the Championship with the German giant already securing a podium result in only their second race. If Wehrlein is to join, it would be in place of Neel Jani.
Audi evaluating drivers in replacement for Abt
Season Four Champions, Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler, are currently reviewing a number of drivers to replacement Daniel Abt. Audi announced last month that they would be splitting with Abt with immediate effect after the German driver was caught cheating during the Home Challenge Esports event.
Abt enlisted a sim racer, Lorenz Hoerzing, to take his place in the first Berlin round of the Race at Home Challenge. Abt received huge backlash from this stunt and his contract with Audi was terminated.
This has now left a vacant seat alongside Season Three Champion Lucas di Grassi. This will be the first change in Audi's line-up since the inaugural season of Formula E as Di Grassi and Abt have been teammates since Season One in 2014/15.
A few candidates for the drive have been speculated but Two-time DTM Champion Rene Rast, who is seen as the prime candidate, will test an Audi Formula E car in July. Rast will be out of a drive in 2021 as Audi pull out of the sport.
Another potential candidate for the seat is another of Audi's DTM drivers, Nico Muller, who currently races for GEOX Dragon. Muller has said that he is tied to Dragon for the rest of the season stating: "My second priority is clearly the Formula E campaign with Dragon and I have a commitment with them for the full season."
What do you think? Will Wehrlein join Porsche? Who will partner Di Grassi at Audi? Get in touch with your views! @rhonansf1blog on Twitter
Comments