Mercedes F1 reserve driver Fred Vesti has thrown his name in the mix for a promotion to a full-time seat with Cadillac next year.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Danish driver has been part of the Mercedes set-up for some time, joining the development programme in 2021 as he navigated his junior career.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Vesti has had several FP1 outings with Mercedes over the last handful of years, including at this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, where he sat in for George Russell.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
However, he also has an existing relationship with Cadillac, as he races for the manufacturer in the IMSA Sportscar series in the United States, taking three wins across the last two seasons.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Vesti is keen to take the next step with the American outfit and step into an F1 seat for 2027.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“I’m hugely privileged to be working with two awesome manufacturers, Mercedes and Cadillac,” Vesti told Sky Sports F1.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Obviously, racing with them in sports cars, they’ve had the chance for two years to see what I can do. This year, we were drivers’ champions, team champions, manufacturers’ champion in IMSA, and that really shows the level we’re operating at.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“But to have two manufacturers working together like that for a driver is very, very special and very rare.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“And there’s no doubt, I have all my eyes on that seat, and it would be such a privilege to step into that.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tVesti urges F1 teams to trust rookies<\/p>\n
While Cadillac has confirmed Perez’s place within the team until at least the end of 2027, the situation of his team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, is less certain.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Also linked with a promotion to the drive is Colton Herta, who is pushing hard to secure a super licence that will allow him to race in F1.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Vesti highlighted that more F1 teams should give rookies a chance, pointing to the success that Kimi Antonelli has enjoyed so early in his career.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“There is one thing I would say: look at Kimi. He has a chance of being world champion this weekend,” Vesti said.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“He’s 20 years old; he’s a young guy showing F1 what the young drivers can do. And I think that should be also a pointer for the team principals to trust the young talent.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“There is plenty of experience on the grid. I think we need to trust the rookies more.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes F1 reserve driver Fred Vesti has thrown his name in the mix for a promotion to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,830,828,831,829,826,813,816,823,825,824,822,85],"class_list":["post-947529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}