Wolff hints at giving Ocon a year "sabbatical"

Toto Wolff confirms Esteban Ocon may be forced into taking a year away from F1 because of the lack of seats available to the Mercedes junior driver. Wolff confirms this is still a plan B but is starting to look more and more likely.

The current Force India driver looks like he will be forced out of his seat by Lance Stroll, the son of the new owner Lawerence Stroll. The only seat realistically left is in the Williams' cockpits, but if he misses out here, his plans will have to freeze.

"We hope to find a good solution, but we are not desperately looking for a seat in 2019. Instead, we want to go for the long term," Wolff told Sky Sports.

Just a few weeks ago, Wolff put forward the idea of introducing three-car teams which were shut-down by the rest of the paddock. Pascal Wehrlein recently left Mercedes to open up more opportunities. An opportunity could be a seat at Toro Rosso.