With Antonelli signing for Mercedes in 2025, the team will have a much younger line-up than before.
At the end of August, Mercedes announced that Andrea Kimi Antonelli would replace Lewis Hamilton for the 2025 season, driving alongside George Russell.
The 18-year-old Italian driver enjoyed an impressive start to his racing career, winning the Italian F4 Championship, the ADAC Formula 4 Championship, and the FIA Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup in 2022.
In 2023, the young Italian won the Formula Regional Middle East Championship and the Formula Regional European Championship. In 2024, he has been competing in Formula 2 with Prema Racing. He sits in P6 of the Drivers’ Standings. Antonelli also took the role of Mercedes F1 Team Test Driver for 2024.
Antonelli is believed to be one of the most talented young drivers coming up through the series to F1. He is now bound for Mercedes following the news of Hamilton’s departure to Ferrari for next year’s season.
Wolff is looking forward to the change
As reported by PlanetF1, Wolff told Autosprint:
“Now is the time to make a change in terms of generation after the departure of Lewis, because nothing will be as it was before”
39-year-old Hamilton has been with the Brackley-based outfit since 2013, enjoying a hugely successful period of domination. His departure announcement took the industry by surprise. In his long and decorated career so far Hamilton had only driven for two F1 teams – McLaren and Mercedes.
Wolff is looking at the change in a positive light, particularly when it comes to Antonelli’s young age. He said:
“We will be dealing with a young team next year. Going into the season with George and Antonelli means we are opening a new era. The previous era was great and now is the time to turn a page and make a new start.”
Antonelli did not have to wait
Unlike Antonelli, who will graduate straight into the Mercedes seat from his first F2 season, Russell had to wait longer for his opportunity. The 26-year-old made his F1 debut with Williams in 2019, finally signing with Mercedes for the 2022 season, replacing Valtteri Bottas.
Wolff is clear that they did not want to make the same error in waiting too long with Antonelli. The 52-year-old has been Team Principal of Mercedes since 2013. In that period, Wolff has seen competitors like Red Bull and McLaren successfully sign fresh, young talent to great effect.
Therefore, Wolff was determined to correct his former mistake with Russell and signed Antonelli early in his career. Some argue that it may even be too early. However, Wolff justified his decision, sharing:
“The reason Antonelli is driving immediately for Mercedes, and will not first make his debut at Williams is because you want him fresh, not contaminated – if you can put it that way – by external experiences.”
He added:
“If he went to another team first, he would learn different things, behaviours, have different notions about technical things than us. We want to avoid that.”
? | Kimi Antonelli, Gwen Lagrue, Toto Wolff and @GeorgeRussell63 ?#F1 pic.twitter.com/0fcbSOMIUa
— Team George Russell (@TeamGR63) September 1, 2024
Making a change in strategy following previous errors, Wolff sees the positives in the new approach for the team. He stated:
“I think it only brings advantages to have a young driver with you right away.”
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