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Toto Wolff claims Mercedes is ‘GUILTY’ of joining the Andrea Kimi Antonelli hype train

Originally posted on FirstSportz | By Rishabh Negi | Last updated 5/21/24

The 2025 F1 season is quite a long way ahead but despite this, a young Mercedes junior, Andrea Kimi Antonelli , has got the world talking about him! While he’s found himself in the F1 limelight regularly, Toto Wolff has admitted that Mercedes is also guilty of joining the young Italian’s hype train!

Andrea Kimi Antonelli is currently making his trade in F2 for Prema racing and is one of the top candidates to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for 2025. He is only 17 years old and considering this, Toto Wolff feels that he and his team should not have talked up Antonelli the way they did in recent months.

The Austrian feels that it would be in the best interest of the young driver that he be left alone for some time to concentrate on his F2 season.

We are hyping the young man for a long time now. He will be a very good and a great driver one day in Formula 1, but he is 17. 14 months ago, he drove an F4 car and there's so much expectations in Italy and we [are also] a little bit guilty also about talking about him at that stage. I think we should let him do his F2 thing and deliver results and not be too carried away with what could be or should be. Toto Wolff said in an interview with racingnews365

The Mercedes boss has made his feelings crystal clear around the whole Antonelli – Mercedes saga! Moreover, he has especially stressed that no one should get carried away with what the future could look like for the young sensation. The Brackley-based team has quite a few options next year.

Toto Wolff’s take on Carlos Sainz as a potential 2025 option for Mercedes

While Wolff is keeping his cards around Antonelli close to his chest, he also has another exciting driver option for 2025. The current Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz is still a free agent and is available for next year.

However, the Spaniard is hell-bent on playing the long game as he is personally, eyeing the coveted Red Bull seat!

I think Carlos has his place in Formula 1, he's been at Ferrari recently in the last few years so is one of huge experience. I think what I said is we need to prepare to compromise in certain decisions and to wait long, how the situation pans out over the summer and into autumn. Toto Wolff said in the same interview

It seems that all the top teams and the best available drivers are going to play the long game to get the best possible F1 deal. However, one thing is for certain, when the next big announcement regarding a driver signing hits the paddock, there will be utter chaos, as the various teams will scramble to get their line-ups sorted for next year.

This article first appeared on FirstSportz and was syndicated with permission.

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