Wehrlein opens up about Force India snub

Editor

After losing out to Esteban Ocon for the Force India seat left vacant by Nico Hulkenberg, Pascal Wehrlein opened up about the situation, saying it wasn’t because the Frenchman was better.

The German youngster had an impressive debut season with Manor, scoring a point in Austria and making several appearances in Q2.

However, Force India opted to take on Ocon, citing his 2015 testing performances as the main reason.

“I know the reasons why and it’s something easy to change,” he told Autosport.

“It had nothing to do with performance.

“In the test something happened, something they were not happy, and that’s it.

“They think Esteban is fitting better into the team – that’s it.

“The decision had nothing to do with feedback or performance, but had something to do with how they were getting along with me, something on a personal side.

“I cannot change it anymore and I can just learn from it and do better in the future.”

Wehrlein, though, is in line to replace Nico Rosberg at Mercedes, with Toto Wolff putting talks on hold with a possible drive at Sauber.