In a bold move, Mercedes has officially announced that 18-year-old Italian prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli will step into the vacant seat left by Lewis Hamilton starting in 2025. This decision places Antonelli directly alongside George Russell, marking a generational shift for the team.
The Italian, who has spent 2024 balancing his Formula 2 debut with extensive Formula 1 testing, was seen as a top contender to fill the seat once it became evident that Max Verstappen would remain at Red Bull for another season.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained that Antonelli’s immediate promotion to the works team was a strategic decision aimed at avoiding the influence of external experiences, or what he termed as “contamination” by rival teams.
Wolff expressed that the experience George Russell had during his time at Williams—where he spent three years racing at the back of the grid—contributed to the decision to place Antonelli directly in Mercedes instead of loaning him to a customer team like Williams.
“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. “Going into the season with George and Antonelli means we are opening a new era.”
Wolff emphasized the desire to shape Antonelli into the driver Mercedes envisions long-term, without interference from the technical and operational methodologies of other teams: “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.”
Antonelli’s journey has not been without its challenges. The Italian driver made headlines when he crashed during his F1 weekend debut at Monza during FP1. Despite the incident, George Russell—who will be Antonelli’s teammate in 2025—believes the young driver has the raw speed necessary to succeed at the front.
“When I look back to when I was 18 years old there’s obviously so much demand, 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,” Russell said.
Russell acknowledged that mistakes are a natural part of a young driver’s development, but emphasized that Antonelli’s potential is undeniable: “No doubt Kimi is going to learn from [his mistakes], but he’s definitely got the speed to help Mercedes get back to the front of the grid for next year onwards.”
As Mercedes opens this new chapter, the team hopes Antonelli will grow into a championship-caliber driver capable of filling the massive shoes left by Hamilton. With both Russell and Antonelli leading the charge, Mercedes is confident that the future looks bright for their continued success in Formula 1.
