Wendl: Mercedes-AMG “Fully Accepted” Marciello’s Decision

Photo: Mercedes-AMG

Head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Stefan Wendl said he “fully accepted” Raffaele Marciello’s decision to move on at the end of this year, with the German manufacturer not currently having a prototype offering for the multi-time championship-winning GT3 driver.

Announced earlier this week, Marciello’s final race with Mercedes-AMG will come in Sunday’s FIA GT World Cup in Macau, ending an ultra successful seven-year stint with the brand that’s included multiple Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe titles, wins in key endurance races and the 2019 GT World Cup.

“It makes us all sad,” Wendl told Sportscar365. “It feels like a big loss for the whole family, for our teams, for our drivers. He was a committed driver by winning so many races.

“He helped us and was part of our family and he will still be in the future.”

Wendl revealed that Marciello, who is tipped to join BMW’s Hypercar program in the FIA World Endurance Championship, initially held conversations about his pending exit from the brand last year.

“We fully accepted when he approached me, one-and-a-half years ago, that he wants to make the next step, he wants to go to Le Mans, he wants to do prototype racing as he’s in the right shape to do it,” he said.

“This is something we accepted. We had a few hours of discussions. We tried to hold him here but so far we cannot provide him a prototype car. This made for me the limit.

“Everything we can do is enjoy the races that we have with him and wish him good luck for the future.”

Juncadella to Continue With Mercedes-AMG in “Selected Races”

What appeared to be a double blow to Mercedes-AMG with the news this week that fellow works driver Dani Juncadella has joined Corvette Racing has been lessened, as Wendl confirmed that the Spaniard will continue to be part of the factory roster but in a reduced capacity.

Sportscar365 understands Juncadella’s arrangement with Corvette Racing is similar to that of Nicky Catsburg, who was permitted to contest non-conflicting races in other GT3 machinery this year.

“We will have Dani with us next year in our cockpits too in selected races,” Wendl confirmed.

“Nicky was also racing for us at Bathurst and Spa and I think the American brands are looking for the drivers that have some seat time. This fits well together with our schedule.

“That’s why we’re happy to have Dani and proud to have Dani next year at selected events in our team.

“He’s still a Performance driver but non-exclusive. It’s a different status [for 2024] but we have other drivers that are in the same status.”

Wendl: Mercedes-AMG Looking to Promote From Within

With Marciello departing and Juncadella taking a reduced role, Wendl said Mercedes-AMG is currently working on “several options in the background” regarding potential new Performance drivers.

“As we have a very big customer racing program, and we have a lot of teams worldwide, looking into new drivers and working with young drivers, this is something we consider as our option that we develop our next Performance driver by ourselves,” he explained.

“Nevertheless, as some events are quite peaky in the number of competitors and cars, we will always have a look — as we had also in the past — to add some external drivers into our roster to strengthen our lineups, like Nürburgring, Bathurst and maybe also in Spa.”

Mercedes-AMG held a young driver test last weekend in Valencia, where it selected Frank Bird and Lorenzo Ferrari to join Lucas Auer in an additional GruppeM Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in next month’s Gulf 12 Hours.

“They’re not Lello yet but who knows,” Wendl said. “In one of our AMG drivers, we will find the next Lello as we did in 2016 when he came as a customer to us.

“This is what customer racing is made of. As we do not have any other structure below customer racing, no Cups or anything else, we are open for all approaches. First of all, at the highest priority, we look into our own system.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John