SUMMARY
- Toto Wolff has to fill the seat of Lewis Hamilton who is set to leave at the end of the 2024 season.
- The Italian F2 driver Kimi Antonelli is under Toto's list and is set to take a test drive in the W12 at Red Bull Racing Ring.
Lewis Hamilton will bid farewell to Mercedes after the 2024 season. The Briton worked with Mercedes for 11 years. While Lewis went on to win multiple accolades with the Silver Arrows, it’s time for the German team to find a new driver to partner Geroge Russell.
Toto Wolff has shown interest in experienced drivers like Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel. However, this seems demanding for Mercedes with their tanking performance. Toto has also shown interest in the f2 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Italian driver is currently racing for Prema racing in F2.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is likely to be Mercedes’ driver for 2025. #F1 #Formula1 #ChineseGP #MercedesAMGF1
>>>>A Thread🧵<<<< pic.twitter.com/uizTTw3Zq8— Extreme Cars (@extremecars__) April 10, 2024
Toto Wolff now has a decision to make between going with an experienced driver and focusing on improving the car until the current regulations end. Or select a rookie driver and rebuild the team around.
Could Kimi Antonelli take up Lewis Hamilton’s seat by the 2025 season?
Kimi Antonelli started at the Mercedes junior team in 2019, and in 2021 the driver started his racing career with Prema. Currently paired with Oliver Bearman, the Italian driver has outperformed his teammate in the first three races held till now. There is no denying the fact that the rookie driver has impressive skills that can be put to work for Mercedes to bring back their glory day.
When Toto was asked if the current slump of Mercedes makes Kimi Antonelli a better option due to the reduced pressure of winning races. Toto Wolff said, “I think you can look at it from various perspectives. I believe we are in a rebuilding phase. We need to acknowledge that three years into these regulations we’ve got to do things differently than we’ve done in the past without throwing overboard what we believe is goodness in the way we operate.
He added, “And rebuild a good team, we could put a young driver in, give him an opportunity with less pressure and fighting for victories immediately, or put a more experienced driver in the car that can help us dig ourselves out of the current performance.”
Toto Wolff says he’s undecided on whether Mercedes’ troubles make it more attractive to put Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the car next season.#F1 #Mercedes #TotoWolff
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) April 15, 2024
Toto believes that the team needs to address the issues that cause them not to win the races. The team needs to acknowledge that three years after the new regulations, things are to be done differently than in the past for better results.
The best to achieve this according to Wolff is to bring in a rookie driver to replace Lewis and train the driver without any pressure of winning. The experience gained would hopefully help the team to come out of the slump.
While Mercedes has always hired experienced drivers who guarantee to deliver like Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, It would not be bad to bring in rookie drivers and train them for better performance in the future.