Mercedes has revealed that it chose to place Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the team for 2025 rather than loan him to a Formula 1 rival to avoid him getting “contaminated”.
The German marque has opted to replace the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton with Antonelli, who has dovetailed his debut Formula 2 campaign with extensive F1 tests.
Antonelli was considered the leading contender to land the vacant Mercedes seat once it became clear that Max Verstappen would remain with Red Bull next season.
The Italian, 18, will slot in alongside George Russell, who had to endure three seasons competing at the back with Williams before his promotion to Mercedes in 2022.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted that he realised Russell spent too long with Williams and that contributed to the decision not to replicate that path with Antonelli.
Wolff has explained that the desire to mould Antonelli into the driver that Mercedes wants long-term had an overriding role in the choice to give him a Mercedes drive.
“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,” Wolff told Autosprint.
“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.
“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.
“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. I think it only brings advantages to have a young driver with you right away.”
Russell backs Antonelli to thrive in F1
The scepticism surrounding Antonelli ramped up when he crashed into the barrier on his second timed attempt on his F1 weekend debut in FP1 at Monza last month.
However, Russell is adamant that his impending team-mate has the raw speed to produce at the front and has backed him to prove that Mercedes made the right call.
“When I look back to when I was 18 years old there’s obviously so much demand,” Russell told media including Motorsport Week at the Italian Grand Prix.
“But I think as a driver, you have the speed or you don’t have the speed and I’m very confident Kimi has the speed.
“I think everybody on their journey is going to make mistakes. That’s part of life and part of this sport.
“No doubt Kimi is going to learn from yesterday [his crash during FP1], but he’s definitely got the speed to help Mercedes get back to the front of the grid for the next year onwards and that’s exactly why he’s going to be in the car alongside me next year.
“I’ve always believed that you gain a lot over time with experience in terms of how to deal with a race weekend, the tyres, the team, but I don’t believe I’m any faster today on broad pace than I was when I was 17 years old.
“And I think you’ve either got the speed or you don’t have the speed and Kimi absolutely has the speed.
“He’s proven that in all of his categories, there will be mistakes on the way, as there were for for all of us, I think every single driver on the grid in Formula 1 in the first couple of seasons made very visual mistakes, and that’s going to be obviously highlighted more for any driver who’s at the front of the field.
“But Kimi, he’s exceptionally fast. No doubt he’s going to be really keeping me on my toes next year and I’m really looking forward to a new challenge.
“Three years working with Lewis has been exceptional, but [I am] really looking forward to seeing what we can do together from next year onwards.”
READ MORE: Russell’s ‘too long’ Williams stint inspired Antonelli’s 2025 Mercedes F1 promotion
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