Roberto Merhi Muntan (born 22 March 1991) is a Spanish racing driver. Merhi competed in Formula One for Marussia in .
In his junior career, Merhi won the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2011, had a stint in DTM with Mercedes, and came third in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2014. Despite a lack of funding, Merhi reached Formula One, entering 14 Grands Prix for Marussia in . He later competed in LMP2, Formula 2 and Super GT. In 2023, Merhi raced part-time in Formula E for Mahindra.
Merhi currently travels to F1 races as part of Carlos Sainz Jr.'s circle.
Career
Merhi was born in Castellón de la Plana, Spain to a Brazilian father of Lebanese descent and a Spanish mother of Austrian descent.
Formula Renault In 2007, Merhi mainly competed in Italian Formula Renault and the Formula Renault Eurocup, finishing fourth and 18th respectively. In 2008, he competed in the West European Series, where he was runner-up, and he finished fourth in the Eurocup. He also did five races in the Spanish Formula Three Championship.http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/5067/career/ Roberto Merhi career statistics at Driver Database
Formula Three Merhi made the full-time step-up to Formula Three in 2009 when he was signed by Manor Motorsport for their Formula 3 Euro Series campaign, finishing seventh, with four podiums. He moved to Mücke Motorsport for the 2010 season, improving on his debut season by finishing fifth in the standings, with four podiums, including his maiden win at Hockenheim. 2011 saw another change in teams for Merhi, this time joining Prema Powerteam. Merhi subsequently won the championship, getting 20 top-three finishes, including eleven wins.
DTM 2012
On 3 April 2012, Mercedes announced the revival of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Team that has guided several notable drivers in their racing careers like Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Karl Wendlinger and Michael Schumacher. With that announcement came the news that Merhi, together with the reigning Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion Robert Wickens and DTM-sophomore Christian Vietoris, would become a part of the new Junior Team and that the three of them would drive for the Junior Team in the 2012 DTM season. In addition to that, seven-time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher would be involved with the three drivers by serving as a mentor. Merhi's entry into the DTM meant that he would be one of two Spaniards in the drivers field, together with Miguel Molina. Merhi scored no points in 2012 for Persson Motorsport.
2013 In his second season, Merhi switched to HWA Team. He collected a seventh place at the Norisring and two tenth-place finishes. In the final race of the season, he recorded his best finish of second to end the season 15th in the standings.
Formula Renault 3.5 Series
Merhi moved to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2014 with Zeta Corse. He achieved his first victory from pole position at the team's home race in Moscow. Merhi then scored two poles, two wins and two second places over the next two rounds at the Nürburgring and Hungaroring. In race one in Hungary, under heavy rain, Merhi dominated. By the end of lap one, Merhi had recovered from 7th to 2nd—he then pressured race leader Oliver Rowland into a mistake and ran away to win by 29 seconds over Pierre Gasly, the largest winning margin in FR3.5 history. Merhi eventually finished third in a four-way championship battle with Carlos Sainz Jr., Gasly and Rowland.
Despite his Formula One promotion, Merhi continued racing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2015, switching to Pons Racing. He missed round two at Monaco, where he was replaced by Alex Fontana. In round five at the Red Bull Ring, Merhi was deemed at fault for a post-race collision with Nicholas Latifi after Merhi slowed at the finish line. He was disqualified from the race and banned from the next two events. Merhi did not return to the series.
Endurance racing
In 2016, after his Formula 1 exit, Merhi joined Manor Motorsport's LMP2 programme in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He finished third in class at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps alongside Matt Rao and Richard Bradley, and set the fastest lap on his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut.
Merhi returned to LMP2 in the 2019–20 Asian Le Mans Series, where he took a trio of podiums for Eurasia Motorsport on his way to third in the championship.
FIA Formula 2 Championship 2017
In 2017, Merhi replaced Stefano Coletti at Campos Racing for the Barcelona round of the championship. He also competed at the Spa, Monza and Yas Marina rounds, for Rapax Team.
2018
Merhi scored a full-time drive for the 2018 Formula 2 season with MP Motorsport. Before the Belgian round, he left the team and was replaced by their GP3 Series driver Dorian Boccolacci. He then joined Campos for the final two rounds of the season, replacing Roy Nissany.
2022
Merhi made his Formula 2 return for Campos Racing at the Austrian round of 2022, replacing an injured Ralph Boschung. He retired from the sprint race, but scored third position in the feature race, coming back from 21st position. After his good result in Austria and the fact that Ralph Boschung was still injured, Merhi also competed in the Le Castellet round but he had to retire from both races. He also competed at the Budapest round.
S5000 Tasman Series In 2021, Merhi competed in the Australian single-seater championship, the S5000 Tasman Series, racing for Team BRM. He got three podiums, one of them a victory, thus proclaiming himself runner-up.
Super GT For 2022, Merhi would compete in Super GT for the Team LeMans in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 alongside drivers Yoshiaki Katayama and Shintaro Kawabata, making his debut at the second round of the championship at Fuji.
Super Formula Lights In September 2022, Merhi announced that he would compete in the final round at Okayama of the 2022 Super Formula Lights.
Other racing In April 2026, it was announced that Merhi would be taking part in the first round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with Comtoyou Racing, alongside Mari Boya and Lance Stroll.
Formula One
Caterham (2014) Merhi made his first appearance in a Formula One car for the Caterham team during practice for the 2014 Italian Grand Prix. It is believed that he was being evaluated for a race seat in place of Kamui Kobayashi, but had yet to qualify for an FIA Super Licence.
Marussia (2015) On 9 March 2015, the Manor Marussia team announced that Merhi would drive in the , alongside Britain's Will Stevens. Team principal John Booth, who had previously ran Merhi in Formula 3, chose him despite his lack of funding. Marussia ultimately did not compete in Australia due to a technical problem. Despite reportedly needing €2 million worth of sponsorship money to stay, Merhi kept his seat for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Merhi failed to set a lap time within 107% of the fastest time in Q1, but the race stewards allowed Merhi to start the race, while Stevens was sidelined by a fuel system issue. Merhi finished in 15th place, three laps down on race winner Sebastian Vettel.
In the Chinese Grand Prix, Merhi finished in 16th place behind his teammate Stevens. In Bahrain and Spain, Merhi also finished behind Stevens. However, in the Monaco Grand Prix, Merhi came 16th and beat Stevens for the first time. In Canada, Merhi was a minute ahead of Stevens when, on lap 56, he was forced to retire due to a driveshaft problem. It was Merhi's first and only DNF in Formula One, but he remained ahead of Stevens in the Drivers' Championship. After the arrival of Fabio Leimer as reserve driver, Booth and team director Graeme Lowdon brushed off rumours that Merhi was set to be replaced. In Austria, Merhi finished in 14th position. In British Grand Prix, Merhi was outqualified by Stevens, but overtook him in the race to finish 12th, Manor's best result of the year. In Italy, Merhi lost to Stevens, but started 14th, ahead of fellow Spaniards Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jr., after grid penalties in front. He finished 16th.
Merhi was dropped in favour of Alexander Rossi for five of the last seven Grands Prix of 2015, the exceptions being Russia and Abu Dhabi, which clashed with Rossi's GP2 commitments. Merhi, who was told about the swap on arrival at Singapore, expressed disappointment, but admitted that "it was difficult to continue without financial support and sponsors". Merhi came 13th in Russia, just one lap behind race winner Lewis Hamilton. He finished the season 19th in the Drivers' Championship, ahead of Rossi and Stevens.
Development driver (2019–2020) In 2019, Merhi revealed that he was working with an F1 team as a development driver, but his contract prevented him from revealing which team he was working with. Merhi continued to work as a development driver for 2020.
Formula E
In April 2017, it was announced Merhi would be joining Formula E for the series' fourth season. However, he did not sign with any team.
Merhi returned to Formula E in April 2023, partaking in the rookie test at Berlin with Mahindra Racing.
Mahindra Racing (2023) 2022–23 season In May 2023, it was confirmed that Merhi would replace the departing Oliver Rowland for the 2023 Jakarta ePrix. Having been only under a contract for three races, it was confirmed that he would see out the remainder of the season with the team. Merhi was not retained by the team for the 2023–24 season.
Other ventures Merhi is a close friend of former FR3.5 title rival and F1 driver Carlos Sainz Jr., and has been part of his inner circle at Ferrari and Williams. Sainz has described Merhi as "part driver coach, part team anchor".
In 2023, Merhi co-founded TC Racing, a Spanish F4 team, with Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Racing record Career summary