MERC WOULD ALLOW HAMILTON FE TEST
Team boss Wolff says F1 star can sample manufacturer’s FE machine
Toto Wolff says he would let Lewis Hamilton sample a Mercedes Formula E car if the five-time Formula 1 world champion wanted an outing.
But the Mercedes motorsport boss stressed that Hamilton is not about to join the grid in FE, where Mercedes has just launched its first team.
Hamilton drove a EQC Mercedes road car in
Melbourne ahead of the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, and spoke positively about the experience of driving an electric car on his social media channels.
FE rules allow all teams three promotional days – usually reserved for filming – each season, in addition to the 15 days of private testing granted to manufacturers such as Mercedes to work on their powertrains each year.
“We drove from the hotel to a Mercedes store in Australia and we were both really amazed [at] how well that car drove,” Wolff told MN.
“If he wanted [to drive the FE car] – absolutely. And I’m sure at a certain stage in a career he’s going to maybe try it. But I’m not saying that he’s going to drive in Formula E! He has his hands full with his current job.”
Mercedes is currently preparing for its debut FE season and its first drivers in the championship will be Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries.
The manufacturer has entered the championship to promote its brand of EQ electric road cars, and cites the switch to the Gen2 FE car and the removal of the need for drivers to swap cars to complete a race distance as one of the key reasons behind its entry.
Wolff states that the team does not expect to be frontrunners in its first FE season, where he will dedicate “maybe 10%” of his time to the new project around his responsibilities as Mercedes’ F1 team principal.