Lewis Hamilton has had to withdraw from the first day of testing at Barcelona due to illness. The world champion had to end today due to a fever, with Mercedes giving the rest of the day to reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein, who was running with Force India for today.

It’s reported that Hamilton returned to Europe after a brief stint in the US and woke up with a ‘fever’. He had completed two hours of running but had to stop. The confusing thing for Mercedes is that team mate Nico Rosberg is present, with his race suit on due to a photo shoot, however the champions decided that Wehrlein was the right choice to replace Hamilton.

According to experts the decision to choose Wehrlein instead of Nico is because the German is running tomorrow’s session and Mercedes don’t want to tire him out. With another opinion being that they don’t want to give Nico more time in the car than Lewis.

The Brit managed 11 laps before having to stop, with his best time being a 1:30:429, which means he currently sits bottom of the time sheet.

Force India, who are running their 2014 car, have replaced Wehrlein who is running with the team for this test weekend, is to be replaced for today by Sergio Perez.

Change of plans! @SChecoPerez will be in the car this afternoon, taking over our testing programme for the remainder of today. #FeelTheForce

— Sahara Force India (@ForceIndiaF1) February 19, 2015

Rosberg is in the W06 for tomorrow’s session with Hamilton, health and fitness permitting, is to run again on Saturday. However if he is still out by Saturday, Mercedes may well keep Wehrlein in the car, which would mess up Force India’s plans, as they are scheduled to have the Mercedes reserve driver in their car for Saturday too.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Aaron Irwin
Formula 1 editor, Football League co-editor at VAVEL UK. Writer since July 2014. Hull City correspondent. Currently studying for a Journalism degree at Hull School of Art and Design.