Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed that mechanisms in Lewis Hamilton’s deal were engineered to keep an option open on Andrea Kimi Antonelli stepping up to Formula 1.
With Lewis Hamilton off to Ferrari in 2025, the Brackley-based Mercedes squad has big shoes to fill in replacing the seven-time World Champion.
Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon have all been flung into the rumour mill, as has teenage sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Hamilton signed a 1+1 deal with Mercedes in the summer of 2023, giving both him and the team flexibility and having lost out on Max Verstappen years ago, Wolff didn’t want the same to happen again in the case of Antonelli, even if it would eventually pave the way for his star man’s exit.
“There was a situation many years ago where we had the opportunity to let Max [Verstappen] drive,” Wolff told ORF.
“And that wasn’t possible back then because we simply didn’t have a cockpit.
“[Nico] Rosberg and [Lewis] Hamilton were tied to us long-term, and Red Bull naturally seized the opportunity. They gave him a contract with Toro Rosso, with the possibility of driving for Red Bull the following year.
“We then lost the young driver, and you can see how successful he has become.
“And precisely because we have a junior on the horizon who is really driving at a very high level, I simply wanted to keep this option open.”
Still, Wolff wants “to take the pressure off” of Italian teenager Andrea Kimi Anotenelli, who is hotly tipped to replace Hamilton next year.
The 17-year-old has bypassed Formula 3 to compete in a rookie season in Formula 2 with PREMA, with a horde of rookie titles in his wake, but Wolff doesn’t want to rush the young star.
“So we’ve got that curveball thrown at us with Lewis in the beginning of February, and I want to do the opposite when choosing the driver for next year,” he said.
“Kimi [Antonelli] has been in our junior academy since he was 11.
“We have great pleasure in watching him grow as a young man and growing through the ranks. But I also want to take a little bit of pressure off him. He’s 17.
“He’s won everything he needed to in his rookie season. He is going to be in Formula 1. He’s going to be a very, very successful driver in Formula 1.
“I want to wait how the first few [Formula 2] races that are actually overlaying with Formula 1 go.”
