FIA announce HUGE Mercedes grid change

The FIA have announced a huge grid change from next season, with Mercedes set to join another motorsport series.

Mercedes' Formula 1 team have suffered in recent years, falling from eight consecutive constructors' championship titles, to three seasons of scrambling around for podiums.

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The team have won three races in 2024, their best season since 2021 for race victories, but have just one podium from the last seven races, and are marooned in fourth in the constructors' championship.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is set to leave at the end of the year in an almighty blow to the team, with the Brit instead joining rivals Ferrari.

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Mercedes to join WEC

The German car manufacturer's involvement within F1 is set to grow in the next few years, with Alpine recently announcing that they will be using Mercedes engines from the 2026 season.

The Brackley-based outfit have a number of supremely talented young racing stars on their books, including Mick Schumacher, Kimi Antonelli (who will be joining the F1 team full-time in 2025) and 2023 F2 runner-up Frederik Vesti.

Now, the team might get the chance to give some of these young stars some competitive racing action in Mercedes colours, with it being announced that Mercedes will enter a team into the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2025.

Schumacher is already racing in the WEC with the Alpine team, while the current champions are Porsche Penske Motorsport.

Mercedes will compete in the LMGT3 class with the Iron Lynx team, and will use the Mercedes-AMG GT3.

It was the official FIA World Endurance Championship X account that announced the news of Mercedes' involvement in the series.

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BREAKING NEWS: Mercedes-AMG will join the grid next year!

We bet you weren't expecting that one. 👀

Stay tuned to find out which team the marque will be partnering with.#WEC #MercedesAMGMotorsport #MercedesAMG #Mercedes #AMG pic.twitter.com/kglLs1pnVy

— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) November 20, 2024

Head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Christoph Sagemuller said in an official statement: "It's no secret that we've been very keen for some time to bring the three-pointed star back to Le Mans.

"The 2025 season with the FIA WEC entry is the right moment – we are returning to La Sarthe after 26 years!

"The first FIA WEC season with LMGT3 cars has already been extremely interesting and we want to bring even more excitement to the field in future."

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