Former Sauber F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein will remain with Ferrari for the coming year as a development driver, as the Italian team continue to invest in their new simulator at Maranello.

Wehrlein joined Ferrari in a development capacity ahead of last season, and it has since emerged that he did so on a multi-year agreement.

With reduced testing time in 2020 and beyond, the simulator maintains a pivotal role in F1 teams’ R&D, which is why Ferrari are investing in their infrastructure – with current Mahindra Formula E driver Wehrlein staying on board for a second year of development in 2020.

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“We still have experienced drivers for [2020] in the simulator,” said Team Principal Mattia Binotto, during Ferrari's Christmas lunch last month. “So Pascal is staying with us [in 2020] but we’ve got as well other drivers who maybe are not so much experienced in Formula 1, but have done many years of simulator.

“Our simulator drivers are very well integrated in the team... The simulator is more and more important, that’s why we will invest on the simulator in the future.”