The replacement for the retired Nico Rosberg is expected to be confirmed sometime this week. The announcement was originally planned to take place before Christmas, but delays in the negotiations forced Mercedes to wait until this year.
With the season opener in Australia only a little more than two months away, it’s expected that the remaining open seats on the grid, with the exception of Manor’s, will be confirmed this week. The unexpected retirement of the Mercedes World Champion driver Nico Rosberg has left the Mercedes team with a lineup gap to fill, which could cause a bit of driver shuffling further down the grid.
As it stands, Valtteri Bottas is forecast to become Lewis Hamilton’s teammate for 2017. This has been the case for many weeks and has all but been confirmed. Mercedes even reportedly gave Bottas a factory tour.
Felipe Massa is expected to fill in for Bottas on Williams, despite the team having been offered Pascal Wehrlein. This will force Massa to delay his retirement another season. It has already been reported that Massa signed a conditional contract with the team during the winter break.
Further down the grid, Wehrlein is expected to take the remaining Sauber seat from Felipe Nasr. Various sources report that Wehrlein has been in contact with the team over the past few weeks. This would leave Nasr, who is believed to be experiencing issues with his sponsors, to take a seat on Manor, assuming the team makes it to the grid in 2017.
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