Mercedes’ Wolff eyes Mick Schumacher

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has expressed interest in signing up Mick Schumacher.

Schumacher, the son of F1 great Michael and the new European F3 champion, is moving into Formula 2 in 2019.

"It will be an opportunity to watch closely at how everything works in formula one," the young German said.

When in the paddock regularly next year, top F1 teams - especially the top outfits Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull - will be looking to sign Schumacher to their driver development programmes.

"He won F3 this year with a Mercedes engine, but he is not part of our young driver programme," Wolff said at the FIA gala in St Petersburg.

"He is now in F2 but I am sure he has the potential to become a winning F1 driver. Maybe with us, maybe not," he added.

Wolff also spoke about other topics, including his altered view about Halo. Earlier in 2018, the Austrian said he would like to chop it off the cars with a chainsaw.

"I’m glad I was never given one," he laughed.

"I still don’t like how it looks, but I am glad that Jean Todt insisted. I really like Charles (Leclerc) and I would not have forgiven myself if something had happened to him and we had voted against it," Wolff added.

Wolff also admitted that Mercedes recently suffered "a small setback" with development of its 2019 engine.

"We set high goals when we heard how well the competition was going in engine development," he said.

"We achieved very nice results in the wind tunnel, but the engine had a small setback with the new concept. But I am confident our guys will reach the numbers they have targeted," Wolff added.

Finally, after Lewis Hamilton missed the FIA gala press conference due to illness, Wolff clarified: "I think he did not come because he is tired of answering the same questions."