One sponsor could have made the difference when it came to Valtteri Bottas securing the Mercedes seat for 2017.
Team boss Toto Wolff admitted that Bottas’ major sponsor at Williams, Antti Aarnio-Wihuri, made the crucial decision to switch his allegiance to Mercedes this year.
"Yes, without it we would have put Pascal Wehrlein with Lewis Hamilton," Wolff is quoted by the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat.
"Antti made is possible for us to move Valtteri to us," he added.
"Valtteri certainly has other very important partners, such as Kemppi, but Antti enabled this agreement with Mercedes," Wolff revealed.