No news on Nico Rosberg's replacement until January; Valtteri Bottas remains front-runner to partner Lewis Hamilton but Williams have rejected initial Mercedes approach
Thursday 15 December 2016 22:01, UK
Mercedes will not announce Nico Rosberg's replacement until January at the earliest, the F1 world champions have confirmed.
F1 has been on tenterhooks to learn who will succeed Rosberg in the seat alongside Lewis Hamilton since the German stunned the sport by retiring three weeks ago.
However, a Mercedes spokesman has confirmed that the wait will continue for at least a few weeks longer with no announcement before January 3, the date when the Brackley team return to work after the Christmas break.
Williams' Valtteri Bottas remains the front-runner for the seat but Sky Sports understands the Grove team rejected the world champions' initial approach.
With Christmas fast approaching, Mercedes' decision to delay any announcement until January at the earliest means the Brackley team have more time to weigh up their options and return to Williams with any improved offer for Bottas.
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Mercedes' first offer to Williams is thought to have included a discount on the price the Grove team pay for their engine supply, but the prospect of losing the experienced and well-regarded Bottas would leave them with their own 11th-hour driver quandary.
Pascal Wehrlein, who remains a contender for the main Mercedes seat, is thought to have been offered to Williams but the German has just one season of F1 under his belt compared to Bottas's four, with the Finn also boasting a proven podium-finishing record.
Were Mercedes to agree a deal with Williams for Bottas to move to Brackley, a number of drivers - Felipe Nasr, Paul di Resta and Wehrlein - have been linked with the seat to partner incoming 18-year-old rookie Lance Stroll.
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But in a fresh twist to the speculation, French newspaper L'Equipe claimed that Williams were sounding out Felipe Massa over whether he would consider performing a U-turn on his recent retirement decision and race again in 2017 if Bottas left for Mercedes.
Williams have declined to comment on the ongoing speculation around Bottas with a spokesperson telling Sky Sports earlier this week their 2017 line-up remained unchanged.
Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel had been mooted as potential candidates for the Mercedes seat in the immediate aftermath of Rosberg's shock retirement but both former champions are set to stay at their respective current teams.
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone told Sky Sports News HQ: "There is no good encouraging people because both those guys are under contract.
"Whether or not… they've said they couldn't have Fernando because his tanglement with McLaren and with them at the time [over the Spygate controversy of 2007], so it would be wrong to have him. So they didn't try with him.
"But Sebastian is with Ferrari, is happy and certainly wouldn't break his contract."
Ecclestone also predicted that whoever Hamilton's eventual team-mate turned out to be would not win out at Mercedes as "nobody is going to beat Lewis".
Mercedes' decision to hold off on any decision until January means the other open seats on the 2017 grid, one at Sauber and two at Manor, may also remain unfilled until the early weeks of the New Year.
