A Spanish driver's climb from Formula 3 champion to a 2015 Formula One seat, followed by a long run through endurance racing, Formula 2 and Formula E.
Roberto Merhi, born in 1991 in Castellon de la Plana, is a Spanish racing driver. He won the 2011 Formula 3 Euro Series, entered 14 Formula One Grands Prix for Marussia in 2015 and later raced in endurance events, Formula 2 and Formula E.
Roberto Merhi is a Spanish driver whose career moved from a Formula 3 title in 2011 to a Formula One season with Marussia in 2015. Since leaving the grid he has raced in endurance events, Formula 2, Super GT and Formula E, and he is a regular at Grands Prix through his links to Carlos Sainz Jr.
Who is Roberto Merhi?
Roberto Merhi Muntan was born on 22 March 1991 in Castellon de la Plana, Spain. His father was Brazilian with Lebanese roots, and his mother was Spanish with Austrian ancestry, so his background drew on several countries before he took up racing.
Merhi's early years were typical of a Spanish driver chasing European series, with frequent team changes as he climbed. Across his career he has driven single-seaters, touring cars, sportscars and open-wheel series. His most visible spell came in Formula One, although his results in Formula Renault 3.5 and the Formula 3 Euro Series also marked him as a driver with real speed.
A Formula 3 champion who reached Formula One on a tight budget, then carved out a long career across endurance, Formula 2 and Formula E.
How did Merhi rise through the junior ranks?
In 2007 Merhi raced in Italian Formula Renault and in the Eurocup, placing fourth in the former and 18th in the latter. A year later he was runner-up in the West European Series, fourth in the Eurocup, and took part in five Spanish Formula Three rounds.
He stepped up to full-time Formula Three in 2009 with Manor Motorsport, ending the Formula 3 Euro Series season seventh with four podiums. For 2010 he moved to Mucke Motorsport, ending fifth overall after four podiums and a first win at Hockenheim.
In 2011 he joined Prema Powerteam and became champion. He collected 20 top-three finishes that season, eleven of them wins, and the title opened the door to bigger opportunities in the years that followed.
What was Merhi's spell in the DTM like?
In April 2012 Mercedes revived its Junior Team, a scheme that had developed talents like Frentzen, Wendlinger and Schumacher. Merhi was one of three drivers taken on for the 2012 DTM season, alongside Robert Wickens and Christian Vietoris, and Schumacher was to mentor the trio. Wickens had been the reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion, which made the line-up a strong one.
Merhi was one of two Spaniards in the DTM field, the other being Miguel Molina. Persson Motorsport gave him no points in 2012, but he moved to HWA Team for 2013 and did better. He took seventh at the Norisring, two tenth-place finishes and a second place in the final race, which left him 15th in the standings. His HWA season showed improvement, even if it did not bring him a title push.
How did Merhi perform in Formula Renault 3.5?
In 2014 Merhi joined Zeta Corse for the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. He won his first race from pole at the team's home round in Moscow, and over the next two rounds at the Nurburgring and the Hungaroring he added two more poles, a pair of wins and two second places.
Hungary was the high point of his season. Racing in heavy rain, he went from seventh to second by the end of the first lap, pressured the leader Oliver Rowland into a mistake and crossed the line 29 seconds clear of Pierre Gasly. It remains the largest winning margin in the series' history.
He finished third in a four-way championship fight with Carlos Sainz Jr, Gasly and Rowland. In 2015 he moved to Pons Racing and missed the Monaco round, which Alex Fontana drove in his place. At the Red Bull Ring he was judged at fault for a collision with Nicholas Latifi after he slowed on the finish line, and he was disqualified and banned from the next two events. He did not return to the series.
How did Merhi reach Formula One?
Merhi first ran a Formula One car in practice for Caterham at the 2014 Italian Grand Prix. He was reportedly considered as a replacement for Kamui Kobayashi, but had not yet secured the FIA Super Licence needed to start a race. That practice outing did not lead to a race start in 2014.
His real chance came with Manor Marussia in 2015. On 9 March that year the team announced that he would race at the Australian Grand Prix alongside Will Stevens. Team principal John Booth had run him in Formula 3 and picked him despite his lack of funding, though Marussia never made the Australian start because of a technical problem.
Reports suggested he needed around 2 million euros of sponsorship to keep the seat, and he kept it for the Malaysian Grand Prix. He did not set a time within 107 per cent of the fastest qualifier, but the stewards let him start, and he finished 15th, three laps down on Sebastian Vettel.
What was the 2015 Formula One season like for Merhi?
In China he finished 16th behind Stevens, and at Monaco he was 16th and beat his teammate for the first time. In Canada he was a minute ahead of Stevens when a driveshaft failure forced him to retire on lap 56. It was his first and only Formula One retirement.
When Fabio Leimer arrived as reserve driver, rumours spread that Merhi might be replaced. Booth and team director Graeme Lowdon played them down. Merhi went on to finish 14th in Austria and then took 12th at the British Grand Prix, after overtaking Stevens in the race, which was Manor's best result of the year.
Alexander Rossi took over for five of the final seven races. Merhi kept his seat for Russia and Abu Dhabi, which Rossi could not attend because of his GP2 programme. He learned of the change on arrival in Singapore and later said funding problems had made the season hard to continue. He finished 13th in Russia and closed the year 19th in the standings, ahead of Rossi and Stevens.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Formula 3 Euro Series champion with Prema Powerteam |
| 2012 | DTM with the Mercedes Junior Team; no points for Persson Motorsport |
| 2014 | Formula Renault 3.5 race wins, including a 29-second margin in Hungary |
| 2015 | Formula One with Marussia; best result 12th at the British Grand Prix |
| 2016 | Joins Manor Motorsport's LMP2 programme; fastest lap on Le Mans debut |
| 2020 | Third in the Asian Le Mans Series championship |
| 2022 | Super GT debut at Fuji; third from 21st in a Formula 2 feature race |
| 2023 | Replaces Oliver Rowland for the Jakarta ePrix |
What did the years after Formula One bring?
Merhi went into endurance racing in 2016 with Manor's LMP2 squad in the World Endurance Championship. Spa gave him third in class with Matt Rao and Richard Bradley, and his Le Mans debut produced the fastest lap.
The 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series brought him back to LMP2 with Eurasia Motorsport, collecting three podiums on the way to third in the championship. In 2019 he also revealed he was working as a development driver for an F1 team, though his contract stopped him naming it, and he continued in that role in 2020. In April 2017 he had been announced for Formula E's fourth season, but he never signed with a team.
His Formula 2 career had an early start in 2017, and his outings were brief stints rather than full campaigns, when he filled in for Stefano Coletti with Campos at the Barcelona event, and he also raced at Spa, Monza and Yas Marina for Rapax Team. A full season with MP Motorsport followed in 2018, but he left before the Belgian round and then finished the year with Campos, replacing Roy Nissany for the last two rounds.
Where did Merhi race in 2021 to 2023?
In 2021 he competed in the S5000 Tasman Series in Australia for Team BRM. He took three podiums, one of them a victory, and finished the championship as runner-up. It was one of the strongest results of his open-wheel period after Formula One.
For 2022 he joined Team LeMans in Super GT, driving an Audi R8 LMS GT3 alongside Yoshiaki Katayama and Shintaro Kawabata. He made his debut at the second round, at Fuji. The Super GT entry was one of several projects that took him outside Europe. That same year he returned to Formula 2 with Campos at the Austrian round, replacing the injured Ralph Boschung, and he finished third in the feature race from 21st on the grid.
He then competed at the Le Castellet round, where he retired from both races, and at the Budapest round. He also took part in the final round of the 2022 Super Formula Lights at Okayama. In 2023 he was called up to replace the departing Oliver Rowland for the Jakarta ePrix, after a rookie test with Mahindra Racing in Berlin, and he was not retained for 2023-24.
Taken together, Merhi's record is one of consistency in the lower formulae and a shorter, budget-limited Formula One chapter. His strongest seasons came in Formula 3 and Formula Renault 3.5, and 2015 remains his only full campaign on the Formula One grid.
How is Merhi involved in racing today?
Merhi is a close friend of Carlos Sainz Jr, a former Formula Renault 3.5 rival, and he has been close to Sainz at Ferrari and Williams. Sainz describes Merhi's role as a mix of coach and steadying presence.
Merhi and Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois set up TC Racing, a Spanish Formula 4 operation, in 2023. April 2026 brought news of a drive at the opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for Comtoyou Racing, with Mari Boya and Lance Stroll.
