Formula E championship leader and former Formula 1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne has been announced as reserve driver for the Mercedes F1 team during the 2020 season.
Vandoorne currently races for the Mercedes-Benz EQ team in Formula E and leads the standings after three rounds, having taken two podium finishes.
The Belgian jumped ship to FE after losing his McLaren drive to Lando Norris at the end of the 2018 season.
He joins former F1 driver Esteban Gutierrez in the role, with the team confirming the duo will “share reserve driver duties on race weekends”, which sees Vandoorne effectively replacing Esteban Ocon, who has now joined Renault in a full-time drive, replacing Nico Hulkenberg.
Vandoorne’s FE commitments means he will be unavailable for the Vietnam GP (Rome E-Prix), the Dutch GP (Seoul E-Prix) and the Azerbaijan GP (Jakarta E-Prix).
The postponement of the Sanya E-Prix and Chinese GP due to the Coronavirus outbreak means two further clashes have been avoided, as Sanya is on the same weekend as the Bahrain GP and the Chinese GP clashed with FE’s eighth round, the Paris E-Prix.