Toto Wolff warned against signing ‘superstar’ to replace Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes
Toto Wolff faces a tough decision to decide George Russell’s next Mercedes team-mate with many names in the picture.
Former Mercedes star Nico Rosberg has warned Toto Wolff against signing teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli, suggesting that it is ‘too soon’ for the 17-year-old to make the leap into Formula One. The academy starlet has long been marked out as a future star and is in the conversation to replace Lewis Hamilton next season.
Antonelli has been on Mercedes’ books since his karting days and after dominating the FRECA series in 2023, the teenager was promoted straight into Formula Two with PREMA Racing with the expectation that he would fight team-mate Oliver Bearman for the title.
However, with Hamilton moving on and Max Verstappen unwilling to swap Milton Keynes for Brackley, Wolff has been left with a difficult decision to make regarding his future driver line-up. Now that Fernando Alonso has committed to Aston Martin, Antonelli is one of the two leading contenders for the seat, alongside Carlos Sainz. Assessing the Italian’s F1 prospects, Rosberg told Sky Sports F1: “Well Antonelli is definitely a superstar of the future, but unfortunately timing-wise it’s really too early for him and especially too early for Toto to make a decision on Antonelli.
“I mean he needs to wait until somewhat later in the year as we see how Antonelli does in Formula Two also. Because he does need a really strong season in Formula Two to make it a possibility for him to go straight to Mercedes. Otherwise, if anything, some time at Williams or something would make sense.”
Wolff is aware of the detrimental impact that promoting Antonelli too soon could have on his career, but the 17-year-old’s stellar junior career, combined with an impressive test outing at the Red Bull Ring earlier this week ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix form a compelling case for taking a gamble. “The program that you drive in F1 has been in place for a long time and has not fundamentally changed in recent weeks,” Wolff explained before the test. “We have added more days, but we are sure what will happen in the next few months, whether he will be in an F1 car next year or not.”
