F1 B-Team is a Good Idea: Mercedes

As it turns out, the Mercedes AMG F1 team are beginning to catch on to the idea of fielding an F1 B-Team. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was impressed by Ferrari’s “very visionary” link-up with Sauber. Now he is toying with the idea of implementing something similar for the world champions.  The Ferrari-Sauber partnership for 2018 will see the team officially badged as ‘Alfa-Romeo [part of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Group] Sauber’. The deal also saw Ferrari juniors Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi handed a race seat and reserve role respectively.

Ferrari are also privy to a close technical partnership with the Haas F1 team. This ultimately led to controversy during the American team’s debut season in 2016. Wolff is also aware of how the latest deal could benefit the Maranello squad.

He said, “I think what [Ferrari president] Sergio Marchionne and Maurizio [Arrivabene] are doing is very clever. They’ve had a good relationship with Haas. That has helped Haas and helped Ferrari and what they are doing now with Sauber is very visionary. With Fred [Vassuer] he has a team principal on the other side who knows the business inside out and it can be an alliance that can be dangerous for us.”

Wolff has also stated that he is open to the idea of Mercedes taking a page out of Ferrari’s book. In other words, Mercedes could turn a present team on the grid into a B-team.

Wolff continued, “It’s something that we are considering. It’s not easy because you don’t want to distract your own organisation with a collaboration with another team on the other side. We are not the only ones who are having intelligent ideas — we are having discussions but nothing is done yet.”

But It was actually Red Bull who had the idea in the first place when they introduced the Toro Rosso team.

So which team would be the ideal candidate for Mercedes to turn into a B-team? Williams? Force India?