Recent Formula One testing including Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Mick Schumacher, according to Mercedes, was “incorrectly labelled” as a “shootout.”
Recently, Mercedes held private testing at Silverstone with Antonelli, George Russell, and reserve Mick Schumacher. There have been rumours that this was a “shootout” to decide the team’s driver lineup for 2025.
Lewis Hamilton is expected to join Formula 2 driver Antonelli, 17, in the Mercedes lineup for the upcoming season. The highly-regarded Italian has participated in multiple test drives in Mercedes F1 cars.
Mercedes maintains that “was neither the intention nor the findings of the running” of a recent test at Silverstone, which garnered significant attention after it was referred to as a “shootout.”
A Mercedes team representative went on, “It’s important to understand that each driver completed different programmes, on different days, in different track and weather conditions.”
“Unfortunately, conclusions and comparisons that do not accurately reflect what happened have been published as a result of unverified speculation.”
Next week in Barcelona, Antonelli and Schumacher will be driving Mercedes’ 2022 vehicle, the W13.
“To the utmost delight of the team, Mick and Kimi have executed their programmes flawlessly, and we eagerly anticipate three jam-packed days of running next week,” Mercedes continued.
After winning the title in Formula 4, Antonelli skipped Formula 3 and advanced straight to Formula 2. He is presently ranked sixth in the 2024 drivers’ standings. Paul Aron leads the championship with 32 points.
Recently, Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes, acknowledged that he could have erred in his hype of Antonelli.
At Imola, Wolff remarked, “We have been hyping that young guy for a while now and he will be a great driver in Formula 1 one day.”
However, he is only 17 years old. There are a lot of expectations in Italy for him because he drove an F4 car fourteen months ago (Antonelli last competed in F4 19 months ago). We were somewhat guilty of bringing him up at that point as well.
We shouldn’t get too caught up in what could or should be, and instead, let him do his F2 thing and produce results.
“Look at George [Russell]—he won both F2 and F3 in his rookie year [when it was still known as GP3, as seen above] and Kimi has performed well in those junior series and is currently in F2, so we’ll see.”
“Let’s not rush it; he will be in Formula 1 one day.”
