Misplaced Pages

Roberto Merhi
Merhi at the 2023 Jakarta ePrix
Born	Roberto Merhi Muntan (1991-03-22) 22 March 1991 (age 33) Castellón, Valencian Community, Spain
Super GT career
Debut season	2022
Current team	LeMans
Racing licence	FIA Platinum
Starts	22
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	4
Poles	1
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	9th in 2023 (GT300)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Spanish
Active years	2015
Teams	Marussia
Car number	98
Entries	14 (13 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2015 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Formula E career
Years active	2023
Teams	Mahindra
Car number	8
Starts	5
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	23rd in 2022–23
Previous series
2014–2015 2014 2012–2013 2009–2011 2009 2008 2007–2008 2007–2008 2006–2007	Formula Renault 3.5 Stock Car Brasil DTM F3 Euro Series British F3 Formula Renault WEC Formula Renault Eurocup Spanish F3 Italian Formula Renault
Championship titles
2011 2011	F3 Euro Series FIA F3 International Trophy

Roberto Merhi Muntan (born 22 March 1991) is a Spanish racing driver, who competes in the GT300 class of Super GT for LeMans. Merhi competed in Formula One at 14 Grands Prix in 2015.

Merhi previously competed in Formula E for Mahindra and who drove in Formula One. Merhi has also raced in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series for Pons, and won the Formula 3 Euro Series championship, whilst driving for Prema. In 2018, he drove for MP and Campos in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. Since 2019, he has competed in sportscar racing, including finishing third in the 2019–20 Asian Le Mans Series.

Career

Merhi was born in Castellón de la Plana, Spain to Brazilian parents of Lebanese descent.

Formula Renault

In 2007, Merhi mainly competed in Italian Formula Renault and the Formula Renault Eurocup, finishing 4th and 18th respectively. In 2008 he competed in the West European Series, where he was runner-up, and he finished 4th in the Eurocup. He also did five races in the Spanish Formula Three Championship.

Formula Three

Merhi made the full-time step-up to Formula Three in 2009 when he was signed by Manor Motorsport for their Formula 3 Euro Series campaign, finishing seventh, with four podiums. He moved to Mücke Motorsport for the 2010 season, improving on his debut season by finishing fifth in the standings, with four podiums, including his maiden win at Hockenheim. 2011 saw another change in teams for Merhi, this time joining Prema Powerteam. Merhi subsequently won the championship, getting 20 top-3 finishes, including 11 wins.

DTM

2012

On 3 April 2012, Mercedes announced the revival of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Team that has guided several notable drivers in their racing careers like Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Karl Wendlinger and Michael Schumacher. With that announcement came the news that Roberto Merhi, together with the reigning Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion Robert Wickens and DTM-sophomore Christian Vietoris, would become a part of the new Junior Team and that the three of them would drive for the Junior Team in the 2012 DTM season. In addition to that, 7-time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher will be involved with the three drivers by serving as a mentor. Merhi's entry into the DTM meant that he would be one of two Spaniards in the drivers field, together with Miguel Molina. Merhi scored no points in 2012 for Persson Motorsport.

2013

In his second season, he switched to HWA Team. He collected a 7th place at the Norisring and two 10th finishes. In the final race of the season he recorded his best finish of 2nd to end the season 15th in the standings.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

Merhi moved to Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2014 with Zeta Corse. He finished third in the championship.

Merhi switched to Pons Racing for the 2015 season. He competed in the first round at Aragon, but was replaced by Alex Fontana so as to focus on his commitments with Marussia during the second round in Monaco, which had their races on the same date. He rejoined the team following the event.

In round five in Austria, Merhi was deemed at fault for a massive collision with Nicholas Latifi when Merhi slowed at the finish line. He was disqualified from the race and banned from the next two events, and has since not returned to the series.

FIA Formula 2 Championship

2017

In 2017, Merhi replaced Stefano Coletti at Campos Racing for the Barcelona round of the championship. He also competed at the Spa, Monza and Yas Marina rounds, for Rapax Team

2018

He scored a full-time drive for the 2018 Formula 2 season with MP Motorsport. Before the Belgian round, he left the team and was replaced by their GP3 Series driver Dorian Boccolacci. He then joined Campos for the final two rounds of the season, replacing Roy Nissany.

2022

Merhi made his Formula 2 return for Campos Racing at the Austrian round of 2022, replacing an injured Ralph Boschung. He retired from the sprint race, but scored third position in the feature race, coming back from 21st position. After his good result in Austria and the fact that Ralph Boschung was still injured, Merhi also competed in the Le Castellet round but he had to retire from both races. He also competed at the Budapest round.

S5000 Tasman Series

In 2021, Merhi competed in the Australian single-seater championship, the S5000 Tasman Series, racing for Team BRM. He got 3 podiums, one of them a victory, thus proclaiming himself runner-up.

Japanese Super GT

For 2022, Roberto Merhi will compete in Japanese SuperGT for the Team LeMans in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 alongside drivers Yoshiaki Katayama and Shintaro Kawabata, making his debut at the second round of the championship at Fuji.

Super Formula Lights

In September 2022, Merhi announced that he would compete in the final round at Okayama of the 2022 Super Formula Lights.

Formula One

Caterham (2014)

Merhi made his first appearance in a Formula One car for the Caterham team during practice for the 2014 Italian Grand Prix. It is believed that he was being evaluated for a race seat in place of Kamui Kobayashi, but had yet to qualify for an FIA Super Licence.

Marussia (2015)

On 9 March 2015, the Manor Marussia team announced that Merhi would drive in the Australian Grand Prix, alongside Britain's Will Stevens. However, Marussia did not compete in Australia due to a technical problem. In the Malaysian Grand Prix Merhi competed in his first Formula One race despite problems to his teammate Stevens' car. Merhi failed to set a lap time within 107% of the fastest time in Q1, but the race stewards allowed Merhi to start the race. Merhi finished in 15th place, 3 laps down on race winner Sebastian Vettel. In the Chinese Grand Prix, Merhi finished in 16th place behind his teammate Stevens. In Bahrain and Spain Merhi also finished behind Stevens. However, in the Monaco Grand Prix Merhi finished in 16th ahead of Stevens. In the Canadian Grand Prix, Merhi qualified ahead of Stevens and would start in 16th thanks to penalties to Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. As well as that Jenson Button failed to set a lap time in qualifying because of an engine issue. In the race, Merhi was a minute ahead of Stevens but on lap 56, he was forced to retire due to a drive-shaft problem. It was the first time that Merhi failed to finish a Formula One race that he started, but he remained ahead of Stevens in the Drivers' Championship. In Austria, Merhi finished in 14th position, 3 laps behind race winner Nico Rosberg. Merhi was dropped in favour of Alexander Rossi for five of the last seven Grands Prix of 2015, the exceptions being Russia and Abu Dhabi, before taking a subsequent demotion to Formula E in 2017 and Formula 2 in 2018.

Development driver (2019-2020)

For 2019, Merhi revealed that he was working with an F1 team as a development driver, but his contract prevented him from revealing which team he was working with. Merhi continued to work as a development driver for 2020.

Formula E

In April 2017, it was announced Merhi would be joining the series for the fourth season. However, he did not sign with any team.

Merhi returned to Formula E in April 2023, partaking in the rookies' driver test in Berlin with Mahindra Racing.

Mahindra Racing (2023)

2022-23 season

In May 2023, it was confirmed that Merhi will replace the departing Oliver Rowland for the 2023 Jakarta ePrix. Having been only under a contract for three races, it was confirmed that he would see out the remainder of the season with the team. Merhi was not retained by the team for the 2023–24 season.

Racing record

Career summary

† As Merhi was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Italia results

(key)

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results

(key)

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 WEC results

(key)

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key)

Complete GP3 Series results

(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicates fastest lap)

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2016	Manor	Tor Graves Matt Rao	Oreca 05-Nissan	LMP2	283	DNF	DNF
2020	Eurasia Motorsport	Nick Foster Nobuya Yamanaka	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	LMP2	351	18th	14th
2021	G-Drive Racing	Rui Andrade John Falb	Aurus 01-Gibson	LMP2 Pro-Am	108	DNF	DNF

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete Asian Le Mans Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete European Le Mans Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete S5000 results

Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula Lights results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Super GT Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula E results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References

1. Rodríguez, Jaime (14 March 2015). "Un volante a dos millones" [A flyer to two million]. El Mundo (in Spanish). Unidad Editorial. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
2. http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/5067/career/ Roberto Merhi career statistics at Driver Database
3. Beer, Matt (9 December 2009). "Merhi switches to Mucke for 2010". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
4. "Mercedes-Benz Junior Team: Back for 2012!". Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Limited. 3 April 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
5. Valeev, Elmir (4 April 2014). "WSR: Мери и Мавланов — пилоты российской Zeta Corse" [WSR: Merhi and Mavlanov — drivers of the Russian Zeta Corse] (in Russian). F1News.ru. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
6. "Ex-F1 driver Roberti Merhi to replace Stefano Coletti at Campos in F2". 15 May 2017.
7. "Roberto Merhi vuelve a pilotar para Campos Racing". Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 6 July 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
8. Sport (21 July 2022). "Merhi, a exprimir su segunda oportunidad en Paul Ricard". sport (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 July 2022.
9. "Ex-F1 driver Merhi joins S5000 field". www.motorsport.com. 15 November 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
10. "Merhi se lanza a la aventura australiana". es.motorsport.com (in Spanish). 24 November 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
11. "Roberto Merhi, subcampeón de las Tasman Series". SoyMotor.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 April 2022.
12. "Roberto Merhi se estrena en el SuperGT con Audi". SoyMotor.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 April 2022.
13. Klein, Jamie (16 September 2022). "Merhi enters Super Formula Lights finale with an eye on 2023". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
14. "Caterham confirms Kobayashi's Monza F1 return and Merhi's FP1 run". autosport.com. Haymarket Publishing. 4 September 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
15. Noble, Jonathan; Beer, Matt (4 September 2014). "F1 newcomer Roberto Merhi waiting on FIA superlicence decision". autosport.com. Haymarket Publishing. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
16. "Roberto Merhi to race for Manor F1 team in Australian Grand Prix". autosport.com. Autosport. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
17. Benson, Andrew (16 September 2015). "Singapore GP: Surreal to be making F1 debut – Alexander Rossi". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
18. Suárez, Jorge El Busto (30 March 2019). "Roberto Merhi regresa a la Fórmula 1 «de incógnito»". MomentoGP (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 March 2022.
19. Llata, Jonathan (25 November 2019). "La resurrección y éxito de Roberto Merhi... y su trabajo con un equipo de F1". elconfidencial.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 March 2022.
20. Mancebo, Adrián (21 April 2020). "El trabajo secreto de Roberto Merhi en la Fórmula 1". Autobild.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 18 March 2022.
21. "Roberto Merhi competirá en la Fórmula E a partir de septiembre (Roberto Merhi will compete in Formula E starting in September)". 4 April 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
22. "Mehri, King And Daruvala To Jump Into The Cockpit At Mahindra". FIA Formula E. 17 April 2023. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
23. Smith, Sam (28 May 2023). "Rowland vacates Mahindra Formula E seat, debut for Merhi". The Race. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
24. "Merhi To See Out Season With Mahindra Racing". The Official Home of Formula E. 6 July 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2023.

External links

• Roberto Merhi career summary at DriverDB.com

v t e Marussia F1/Manor Marussia
Notable personnel Bob Bell John Booth Andrey Cheglakov Nikolai Fomenko Justin King Graeme Lowdon John McQuilliam Dave O'Neill Pat Symonds Rob Taylor Andy Webb Notable drivers Jules Bianchi Max Chilton Timo Glock Roberto Merhi Charles Pic Alexander Rossi Will Stevens Formula One cars MR01 MR02 MR03/MR03B MNR1 Related Marussia Motors Manor Motorsport

• 1991 births
• Living people
• Sportspeople from Castellón de la Plana
• Spanish racing drivers
• Marussia Formula One drivers
• Italian Formula Renault 2.0 drivers
• Formula Renault Eurocup drivers
• Formula Renault 2.0 WEC drivers
• Euroformula Open Championship drivers
• British Formula Three Championship drivers
• Formula 3 Euro Series drivers
• Formula 3 Euro Series champions
• Spanish GP3 Series drivers
• Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters drivers
• Stock Car Brasil drivers
• World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers
• Spanish Formula One drivers
• Spanish people of Lebanese descent
• Spanish people of Brazilian descent
• Sportspeople of Lebanese descent
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• Spanish Protestants
• FIA Formula 2 Championship drivers
• FIA World Endurance Championship drivers
• Formula E drivers
• Prema Powerteam drivers
• Manor Motorsport drivers
• MP Motorsport drivers
• Asian Le Mans Series drivers
• European Le Mans Series drivers
• Super GT drivers
• CRS Racing drivers
• Jenzer Motorsport drivers
• BVM Racing drivers
• Epsilon Euskadi drivers
• Mücke Motorsport drivers
• HWA Team drivers
• Zeta Corse drivers
• Double R Racing drivers
• Pons Racing drivers
• Campos Racing drivers
• Rapax Team drivers
• G-Drive Racing drivers
• Team LeMans drivers
• Eurasia Motorsport drivers
• Tasman Series drivers
• Mercedes-AMG Motorsport drivers
• Hitech Grand Prix drivers
• Garry Rogers Motorsport drivers
• B-Max Racing drivers
• Mahindra Racing drivers
• Super Formula Lights drivers