Mercedes: from Hamilton to Verstappen
Even before the start of the 2024 world championship, the topic of the drivers market exploded with the news of Lewis Hamilton made official by Ferrari for next year. To this, the latest rumors relating to have also been added Max Verstappen as a possible replacement for Hamilton himself in Mercedesespecially after the internal tensions that exploded in Red Bull following the Horner case and the friction with Marko and Jos Verstappen.
Who instead of Hamilton?
Excluding the Dutch driver, there have also been (and are) other names of possible candidates who could occupy the seat vacated by the seven-time world champion, and among these there was no shortage of the hypothesis linked to Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Although team principal Toto Wolff gave priority to the 17-year-old from Bologna's activity in Formula 2, where this year he arrived directly from the European Formula Regional, the Austrian manager later regretted having spoken for so long about the Italian talent.
Like Bottas and Russell in Williams?
The fact remains that the F1 debut of Antonelli's teammate in Prema, Oliver Bearman, has once again rekindled the question linked to the future of young people in the Circus. Also on this occasion, Antonelli's name promptly returned to the lips of commentators not only for a future in Mercedes, but more 'simply' in F1. Specifically, the Bolognese, as a member of the Mercedes Junior Team, could in some way repeat what was done by Valtteri Bottas and George Russell, both making their debut in Williams before landing at Brackley. In this case, he is not a commentator who is convinced of Antonelli's arrival in F1, but rather the Williams team principal James Vowlesformer chief strategist of Mercedes.
Vowles' opinion
Is it possible, therefore, that Antonelli could soon debut in F1 as an official driver? For Vowles, there are no uncertainties, although he defends his current drivers: “I have no doubt that Kimi will be in F1 – he has declared – he did incredibly well in his junior series, but this it doesn't mean it will necessarily be in Williams. I believe in investing in young people, but I will take people based on merit in the organization. I myself am lucky enough to have two juniors, in F2 and F3. We are starting to build a sensible program to develop the next generation of drivers. He is in the position we hope for. From my point of view, it's more about seeing what happens in the future. I have Alex Albon under contract for next year and Logan Sargeant, as well as the youngsters. It's just a matter of seeing how the situation will evolve over the next six months. When you look after an 11 year old junior – he concluded referring to Antonelli – you don't know if it's going to be amazing, or maybe good, great, or mediocre. But him, since the early days of F4you could see that he was growing very well“.
#Antonelli #Williams #BottasRussell #Vowles
