In 2007 Merhi competed in Italian Formula Renault and the Formula Renault Eurocup, finishing fourth and 18th respectively. In 2008 he was runner-up in the West European Series and fourth in the Eurocup. He also contested five races in the Spanish Formula Three Championship that year.
Merhi joined Manor Motorsport for the 2009 Formula 3 Euro Series, finishing seventh with four podiums. He moved to Mücke Motorsport for 2010, finishing fifth with four podiums including his maiden win at Hockenheim. In 2011, driving for Prema Powerteam, he won the championship with 20 top-three finishes including eleven wins.
On 3 April 2012, Mercedes announced the revival of the Mercedes-Benz Junior Team, with Michael Schumacher as mentor. Merhi joined alongside Robert Wickens and Christian Vietoris, driving for Persson Motorsport in the 2012 DTM season, scoring no points. Also on the grid was fellow Spaniard Miguel Molina. In 2013 Merhi switched to HWA Team, collecting a seventh at the Norisring, two tenth-place finishes, and a best result of second in the final race to end 15th in the standings.
Merhi moved to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2014 with Zeta Corse, finishing third in the championship. In 2015 he switched to Pons Racing, competed at the opening round at Aragon, but was replaced by Alex Fontana for the Monaco round to allow him to fulfil his Marussia F1 commitments. He rejoined the team after Monaco. At round five in Austria, Merhi was deemed at fault for a collision with Nicholas Latifi, was disqualified and banned from the next two events, and did not return to the series.
Merhi made his first Formula One appearance for Caterham during practice for the 2014 Italian Grand Prix, being evaluated for a race seat in place of Kamui Kobayashi. On 9 March 2015, Manor Marussia announced him alongside Will Stevens for the Australian Grand Prix, though the team did not compete due to a technical problem. Merhi's first race start came in Malaysia, where he qualified outside 107% but was permitted to start by the stewards, finishing 15th — three laps behind race winner Sebastian Vettel. In China he finished 16th behind Stevens; in Bahrain and Spain he also finished behind Stevens. At Monaco he finished 16th ahead of Stevens. In Canada he qualified ahead of Stevens and was running a minute clear on lap 56 before retiring with a drive-shaft failure — his first non-finish in a started Formula One race. In Austria he finished 14th, three laps behind race winner Nico Rosberg. Merhi was dropped in favour of Alexander Rossi for five of the last seven rounds, returning for Russia and Abu Dhabi.
For 2019 and 2020, Merhi worked as a development driver with an undisclosed F1 team.
In 2017 Merhi replaced Stefano Coletti at Campos Racing for the Barcelona round, and also competed at Spa, Monza and Yas Marina for Rapax Team. In 2018 he held a full-time seat with MP Motorsport before leaving before the Belgian round, replaced by Dorian Boccolacci; he then joined Campos for the final two rounds, replacing Roy Nissany. In 2022 Merhi returned for Campos at the Austrian round replacing injured Ralph Boschung, scoring third in the feature race from 21st on the grid, then competed at Le Castellet and Budapest.
In April 2023 Merhi took part in the Formula E rookies' driver test in Berlin with Mahindra Racing. In May 2023 he replaced the departing Oliver Rowland for the Jakarta ePrix and completed the remainder of the season with the team. He was not retained for the 2023–24 season.
In the 2019–20 Asian Le Mans Series, Merhi finished third. In 2021 he competed in the Australian S5000 Tasman Series with Team BRM, achieving three podiums including one victory and finishing as runner-up. From 2022, Merhi competed in Super GT for Team LeMans in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 alongside Yoshiaki Katayama and Shintaro Kawabata, making his debut at the second round at Fuji. In September 2022 he also announced a start in the final round of the 2022 Super Formula Lights at Okayama. In April 2026, it was announced he would join Comtoyou Racing for the first round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, alongside Mari Boya and Lance Stroll.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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