Lewis Hamilton has moved to Ferrari, thus Mercedes will be slow to name his replacement.
According to Toto Wolff, one reason Lewis Hamilton was given a brief two-year contract was to safeguard Andrea Kimi Antonelli, a promising young player. Wolff says he wants to avoid a situation like the one that saw Mercedes miss out on Max Verstappen, which may indicate that the 17-year-old is the front-runner to succeed Hamilton.
Mercedes looked at Red Bull star Max Verstappen ten years ago. However, Red Bull was able to intervene and steal the Dutchman from the Silver Arrows since Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were bound by long-term contracts.
Hamilton was given a two-year contract by Mercedes last summer, but he has now decided to quit the team in the middle of 2025. Beginning in the new year, the seven-time world champion will be associated with Ferrari.
The topic of speculation now centers on Hamilton’s potential successor at Mercedes. Wolff seemed receptive to the notion that Antonelli would be his long-term replacement. To better prepare him for the demands of Formula One, the Italian has been promoted to F2 for the forthcoming campaign.
“We had the chance to let Max drive in a particular situation many years ago,” Wolff said to ORF, an Austrian broadcaster. And we just didn’t have a cockpit back then, so that wasn’t conceivable.
“[Nico] Rosberg and Hamilton were committed to us for the long run, so Red Bull jumped at the chance.” They offered him a deal with Toro Rosso, with the option to drive for Red Bull the next season.
“You can see how successful the young driver has become after we lost him. I just wanted to keep this option open because we have a junior on the horizon who is driving at a very high level.”
Wolff downplayed the possibility that Antonelli would join Mercedes in 2025 as they aim to maintain their options until the following year. But given how highly Wolff and the team regard Antonelli, it cannot be completely ruled out that he will be signed.
“That does not mean that we will put Antonelli in the car next year,” said the Austrian. “At seventeen years old, he may be a little too young. But I merely wanted this option with an eye towards the next five or ten years.”
Concerning Antonelli’s potential, Wolff went on, “He’s something of a wunderkind. After achieving complete success in karting, he advanced to Formula 4. After winning every title in his debut season, he advanced and repeated the feat.
We’ve now chosen to forego F3, in part because we don’t have much time to test there. He will instead enter F2, which is a significant step up for him. These are powerful, massive automobiles. Since most of the races are included in the F1-supporting package, we’ll also have a thorough rundown of them.”
Who will take over for Hamilton at Mercedes in 2025 is still up in the air. However, it appears that Antonelli, who is highly regarded, has a chance if Wolff wants to prevent his team from losing out on Verstappen again.
