{"id":2422,"date":"2019-11-18T16:58:39","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T16:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=2422"},"modified":"2019-11-18T16:58:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T16:58:39","slug":"wehrlein-remains-committed-to-securing-f1-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=2422","title":{"rendered":"Wehrlein remains committed to securing F1 return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pascal Wehrlein has turned down a chance of racing full-time in Formula E in order to focus on achieving a return to the Grand Prix grid.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s according to Ulrich Fritz, boss of the new Mercedes-affiliated HWA team that will join the all-electric championship for season 5 that gets underway in December.<\/p>\n<p>Wehrlein tested the new Gen2 car with the team earlier this year but ultimately decided it wasn&#8217;t the way he wanted to go.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wehrlein to split with Mercedes after 2018\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Pascal did well in his test but at the time we wanted to make the decision,&#8221; Fritz was quoted by Brazil&#8217;s <em>Globo<\/em>. &#8220;Pascal&#8217;s focus was very clearly on returning to F1.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wehrlein previously won the 2015 DTM championship before joining Manor in 2016. The 23-year-old moved to Sauber the following season, but this year found himself without a seat in F1 and back in DTM with the Mercedes works team.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Wehrlein decided to severed his long standing ties with Mercedes in order to remove one barrier to getting a seat at the Red Bull-backed Toro Rosso squad. <\/p>\n<p>The only other viable spot for him on the grid would be at Williams, which has a long waiting list of hopeful drivers queuing up for a chance.<\/p>\n<p>Fritz said that knowing Wehrlein&#8217;s focus on F1 meant he didn&#8217;t want to take him on at HWA for what could be a limited run.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can understand that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But I do not want to set up a team where a driver says after two races that he is leaving to enter F1. <\/p>\n<p>Click Here: <a href='https:\/\/www.storerwc.com\/new-zealand.html' title='New Zealand rugby store'>New Zealand rugby store<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our expectation was that Pascal would decide in favour of Formula E for the long term,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He couldn&#8217;t and didn&#8217;t want to do that at that moment,&#8221; Fritz told <em>Motorsport.com<\/em>. &#8220;[We] understood, respected and accepted [his decision].<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Accordingly, this project did not come about in its present form,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We never really got into any further talks, because it just didn&#8217;t fit together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>HWA has already announced that Wehrlein&#8217;s current DTM team mate Gary Paffett will be driving for them in Formula E next season. The team&#8217;s second driver is still to be decided.<\/p>\n<p>HWA&#8217;s participation in the series is in preparation for Mercedes&#8217; arrival as a manufacturer at the end of 2019, after it bows out of DTM following this weekend&#8217;s season finale at Hockenheim.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a bit strange,&#8221; said Paffett of the forthcoming event. &#8220;It is the last race for Mercedes in the DTM, the last race for me with Mercedes, and the last race for me in the DTM for the foreseeable future as well. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll be switching to Formula E after the end of the season [but] it&#8217;s a massive occasion. Honestly, I don&#8217;t think we are going to feel it. It is going to take a while for it to sink in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><u>Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers<\/u><\/p>\n<p><em>Keep up to date with all the F1 news via <u>Facebook<\/u> and <u>Twitter<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pascal Wehrlein has turned down a chance of racing full-time in Formula E in order to focus on achieving a return to the Grand Prix grid. That&#8217;s according to Ulrich Fritz, boss of the new Mercedes-affiliated HWA team that will join the all-electric championship for season 5 that gets underway in December. Wehrlein tested the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}