{"id":18239,"date":"2013-05-09T06:57:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T10:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=18239"},"modified":"2013-05-09T06:57:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T10:57:00","slug":"surer-thinks-lauda-chasing-vettel-for-mercedes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/surer-thinks-lauda-chasing-vettel-for-mercedes\/","title":{"rendered":"Surer thinks Lauda chasing Vettel for Mercedes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marc Surer, a former Swiss F1 driver turned commentator, says he is not sure he believes Mercedes is not making a move for Sebastian Vettel.<\/p>\n<p>Niki Lauda, Mercedes&#8217; chairman and shareholder, backpedalled this week after hinting he might have approached Red Bull&#8217;s reigning triple world champion.<\/p>\n<p>But Surer is quoted by Speed Week: &#8220;If you want to be a top team, you have to try to weaken your opponent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This way (signing Vettel), you would weaken your rival and strengthen yourself at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s completely normal if Niki Lauda is trying to get Vettel,&#8221; added Surer.<\/p>\n<p>It is likely Lauda backpedalled on his public approach to Vettel due to the signal it sends to Mercedes&#8217; existing drivers, comprising Nico Rosberg alongside Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of course it&#8217;s unpleasant as a driver if you know your team is looking for alternatives, and if you look at the contractual situation, then that is Rosberg,&#8221; said Surer.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marc Surer, a former Swiss F1 driver turned commentator, says he is not sure he believes Mercedes is not making a move for Sebastian Vettel. Niki Lauda, Mercedes&#8217; chairman and shareholder, backpedalled this week after hinting he might have approached Red Bull&#8217;s reigning triple world champion. But Surer is quoted by Speed Week: &#8220;If you &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[5262,5340,154,4144,8,4,598,164],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18240,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239\/revisions\/18240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}