On the day that McLaren F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne announced he was switching to Formula E, 2016 Formula One world champion, Nico Rosberg, said he can envisage the two series eventually merging.

While still involved in F1, acting as pundit for a number of broadcasters, Rosberg is a stakeholder in the all-electric series, as is Liberty Media's sister company Liberty Global.

Speaking as Formula E announced a 5-year sponsorship deal with Heineken, which also sponsors F1, the German, played down talk that in time the electric series could prove more popular than F1, suggesting that the brewer's decision to get involved with both series could be a portent for the future.

"Maybe we will never even get to that point and we will just see a merger between Formula One and Formula E before that," he told the Associated Press. "When the moment comes that Formula One needs to go electric, which will happen, maybe you will just see a merger then.

"The step for Formula One to go electric will be a big and difficult one," he added. "If that ever happens."

The new season of Formula E, which gets underway in December, will see former F1 star Felipe Massa lining up on the grid for Venturi, the Monaco-based team part-owned by actor Leonardo di Caprio, a keen supporter of environmental issues, yet, like, Rosberg, seemingly always heading back and forth across the globe in fossil-fuelled aircraft.

"It's a real problem out there in the world," warned the German, "and we need to do what we can as fast as possible to help all together.

"If the whole world is selling and driving electric cars, it doesn't make sense for Formula One to be combustion engines, so that moment will come. The advantage is that Formula One and Formula E have the same owner, John Malone."

In August, F1 technical boss Ross Brawn said he envisaged Formula One becoming an all-electric series within five to ten years, a claims subsequently rubbished by both Formula E boss Alejandro Agag and FIA president Jean Todt.

Dismissing Brawn's claim as "nonsense", Todt said: "It is completely misleading to compare FE and F1. F1 is a well-established category and I keep saying that for me, FE is a baby of the FIA so there is still a lot to learn."

Other than the fact Brawn's claim comes at a time F1 has yet to agree on the engine rules from 2021, even more confusing was the fact that the Briton made his claim about F1 going all-electric – a move hardly likely to go down well with the existing manufacturers - via F1's own official Fan Voice portal.

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1. Posted by Rock Doc, 16/10/2018 13:07

"A couple of months ago I would have laughed at this. I laughed at Brawn's suggestion as idiotic. But just recently I've begun to notice more and more Tesla's on the roads. Last year I don't think I had actually ever seen one. Now I see one almost daily.

I read an article recently that had 2 pictures in it. The first one was a street seen at the beginning of the 20th century. The street was full of horse drawn carriages. If you looked closely you could just see 1 car. The second picture taken only 10 years later was the same street scene. But this time it was full of cars and if you looked closely there was only 1 horse. In 10 years the change from animal power to combustion power had been made.

Like it or not the electric car is the future and the manufacturers don't want to be let behind. That is where their development money is going to go. F1 will hang on for a while, but I believe the manufacturers will fall away over the next 10 years. I guess you only really need to look at how fast FE has grown over the years. With the way F1 is shooting itself in the foot these days I'm beginning to think that this could happen.

"

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F1 and Formula E could merge claims Rosberg

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