Toto Wolff, the director of Mercedes F1, obviously expects some complications and difficult moments, even “pulling out one's hair” sometimes during Kimi Antonelli's first season on his team.
Mercedes F1 took an unusual risk in its history by trusting a young driver with no experience in F1. This has never happened since the German brand returned to the sport as a manufacturer team in 2010. He will even become the first rookie driver to race for Mercedes in F1 since Karl Kling during the 1954 French Grand Prix.
Antonelli now replaces Lewis Hamilton alongside George Russell in 2025. The Italian has carried out numerous tests of old F1 cars [les TPC ou Testing of Previous Cars] as well as Free 1 sessions. But nothing replaces competition according to Wolff.
So Wolff expects good and bad as Antonelli learns the ropes.
“Obviously the regulations will be the same in 2025 and you can see the pecking order varies depending on the track. I think the opportunity is there to fight for wins, and if you can do that, you fight for the championship.”
“George will settle in as the main and senior driver, and Kimi will learn, and sometimes we will pull our hair out, and other times we will see moments of brilliance.”
“But it will be a year of managing expectations for Kimi and preparing our driver duo for 2026.”
Wolff admits, however, that Kimi Antonelli will have to be “quickly in tune” if Mercedes F1 makes a more regular comeback for victories with the W17 of 2025.
“When you look at this year's 2024 wins, Red Bull's year was defined by wins early in the year, but you have better data on what we can expect in 2025 if you look at the 2nd half of the year with four very close teams.”
“McLaren won six races, Ferrari five, us four and Red Bull nine.”
“I would like to be in the fight with the other teams, we would like to have victories on merit, but it is not a given, it is absolutely something we have to fight for.”
