Nick Heidfeld will be the reserve driver for Mercedes GP in 2010, a report quoted his manager as saying Friday.

Auto Bild claims the appointment of the 32-year-old Grand Prix veteran, who would complete an all-German lineup for the former Brawn team, will be announced officially in Stuttgart on Monday.

“Nick wants to concentrate fully on his job as test driver and support the regular drivers with his experience,” Heidfeld’s manager Andre Theuerzeit said.

“Nick had focused on having a (race) cockpit with the top teams, but their decisions were rather late. So we’ve gone for another opportunity,” he added.

In a subsequent German news report however, Theuerzeit denied that a contract has been signed.

Mercedes competition director Norbert Haug said late this week that the Brackley based team’s deliberations about a reserve driver were “maturing” but “not finalized yet”.

Heidfeld was recently linked with a move to Renault in 2010 but the speculation now is the newly Genii Capital-controlled team will give the nod to a pay driver instead.