Who will be with Russell at Mercedes in 2025?
The first part of the championship ended with the bitterness of George Russell’s disqualification, but with the victory obtained by default by his teammate Lewis Hamilton, at home Mercedes it is time to look more carefully at tomorrow to find the replacement for the latter, which in 2025 will leave Brackley to join Ferrari.
Antonelli or Verstappen?
The team principal is obviously focused on the topic Toto Wolffeven more so after the tests carried out by Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Spa-Francorchamps, with the 17-year-old from Bologna particularly supported by the Austrian manager himself. Winner at Silverstone and at the Hungaroring after a difficult debut in F2, Antonelli seems to have increasingly convinced Wolff to bet on him, despite the other hypothesis regarding a possible arrival of Max Verstappeneven though the three-time world champion has a contract with Red Bull valid until 2028.
The first option
For the 52-year-old, as reiterated in an interview given to Autosport Wereldthe main objective remains to bring the best available driver to Mercedes to pair with Russell. However, at least for the moment, the first choice would not be Verstappen, who is difficult to achieve, but rather a young promise like the Bolognese driver from Prema: “The criteria for our next driver are simple: we want the best available – he has declared – at the moment, my first option is Kimi Antonelli. Of course there are risks. It is not so much his talent as a driver, but Antonelli would be exposed to the media and to the skill of George Russell, who is one of the best drivers on the grid, but Kimi has enormous potential. His speed and talent are already at a certain level, he just lacks experience. An alternative scenario is of course Verstappen, but at the moment it doesn’t seem realistic to me.. Other drivers would sign a one or two year contract, which is not enough for us. So I’m happy to take the risk with Antonelli, because it’s a calculated risk. If you look at Piastri’s progress – goes on – It took him a year and a half to compete for the win at the level of his teammate Lando Norris. We want to try to do the same with Kimi. In 2025, with the changes of 2026, we will be in a transition phase anyway, so it is a good season to train him in our team”.
Verstappen: never say never
The chances of Verstappen moving to Mercedes are therefore becoming increasingly complex and distant, according to Wolff, but all this does not exclude the Austrian’s interest in the #1: “I will continue to observe the market. I’m not sure how the situation will evolve at Red Bull.”
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