Lewis Hamilton’s announcement to abandon Mercedes In 2025, the year in which he will defend Ferrari, he stirred up the Brackley team. The transfer market is offered altered, because with the exception of Ferrari y McLaren The teams have free seats for the next season. The Silver Arrows They don’t look like they did when they dominated between 2014 and 2021 among builders, and This is Wolff design strategies to choose the companion George Russell. The young Italian talent appears among the options Andrea Kimi Antonellihired by Mercedes since 2019, a diamond that will need the authorization of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and the Formula 1 to compete and so that the Austrian can prove the virtues of his protégé. The plan that Wolff outlines includes Williamswhat must break ties with Logan Sargeant for Antonelli to develop in the Grove team and Mercedes evaluates whether the young man has the aptitude to take over the seat that is currently unoccupied.
The relationship between Wolff and James Wolvesformer Mercedes manager and current Williams leader, and that the latter team uses engines from the Brackley manufacturer are not details in the roadmap drawn by the head of the Silver Arrows. He Sargeant’s poor performancewho was the protagonist of multiple accidents and mistakesis he link that will be cut for Antonelli’s jump. In the five dates of this season the American driver did not exceed 18th place In qualifying tests and in the Australian Grand Prix he had to give the car to his teammate, Alexander Albon, who had crashed his in training and it was impossible to repair in Melbourne. In racing poker, the 14th position in the Bahrain GP it was his best performance. About 25 presences In a year and a fraction, the best happened in his country: the surprise appearance in sixth place on the grid in Las Vegas 2023 and 10th place in the Austin race, where he achieved the only point he has captured since he has been a Formula 1 driver.
Two days of testing with the Mercedes W13 model and those that will be carried out between Sunday and Monday in Imola, the scene of the seventh event on the calendar (May 17 to 19) will be Antonelli’s background on the track. Few, but Wolff does not want to repeat a mistake of the pastwhen lost Max Verstappen and the dutch He went to Red Bull Racing. The situation is not the same, because in 2014 Mercedes did not have a seat to offer MadMax, due to the long-term contracts of Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The best proposal was a space in the DTM, the German tourism, which did not conform to the Verstappen clan. Jos and his son soon discovered the open arms of Helmut Marko and a place at Toro Rosso to debut in the 2015 Australian GP.
“With that we lost the young man and now we see the success he has”Wolff lamented on multiple occasions. “Now we have a junior who is performing at a very high level. He wanted to keep this option open. The pilot market is incredibly interesting right now, because there will be very good ones available by 2025. We have no time pressure. After Melbourne there will be a first evaluation, but We have a promising guy and I don’t want to put pressure on him. He can become a star, but we don’t want to throw him into the abyss too early, raise him to F. 1 at 17 years old”Wolff explained at the beginning of the year. Time, however, mobilizes the Austrian to rush a resolution.
Antonelli was born in Bologna on August 25, 2006 and at the age of seven he started up the ladder in karting. In 2015 he won the final of the EasyKart International and the following year he ventured into WSK. The chain of success did not stop and Mercedes followed his progress: competing for championships in the various modalities of karting aroused interest and the Silver Arrows They came forward to add him to their pilot academy. In single-seaters, the Italian Formula 4 was the base, which he starred in the Prema Racing team, with which he is still in a relationship. In 2022 he was crowned in his country’s F. 4 and in ADAC F. 4 and repeated the following year in the Alpine Formula Regional European Championship and the Formula Regional Middle East Championship.
The talent of Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Entering Formula 3 was the step to get involved in the weekends of the Great Circusto share with F. 1. But Mercedes discarded that step and climbed it this year to a Formula 2 carcategory in which Antonelli competes with the Argentine Franco Colapinto (MP Motorsport). After three dates, which are like doubles because they cover one sprint race and a main race, the Italian places ninethwith 24 units – fourth place in Australia –, 38 behind the leader Zane Maloney (Rodin Motorsport).
The points of the super license They would not be an impossibility for Antonelli to sit in a Formula 1 car, because he achieved 65 and the required age is 40. Age, on the other hand, is a situation that Wolff will have to resolve if he wants the boy with wavy hair to make his debut as a starter. in Wlliams in Emilia-Romagna, in May: FIA requires a minimum of 18 years and Antonelli will only fulfill them in August. The only one who managed to overcome that obstacle, not without controversy, was Verstappen, who debuted at 17 years and 165 days old.
In 2024, Oliver Bearman, also a protagonist in F. 2, debuted at the age of 18 years and 304 days in the Saudi Arabia GP when he replaced Carlos Sainz, who underwent emergency surgery for appendicitis. In the first season of Formula 1, 1950, the youngest driver in a race was the American Troy Ruttman, at 20 years and 79 days; The setting was the Indianapolis 500, which was valid for the Great Circus. Other times.