With the 2025 F1 season set to get underway in Melbourne, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, led by Toto Wolff is one of 10 teams, preparing its drivers—George Russell and rookie Kimi Antonelli— for the season ahead. This will be a big season for 18-year-old Antonelli, who replaces seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton who will race with Scuderia Ferrari in 2025. With such large shoes to fill, the pressure is on for Antonelli to make an impact. However, despite his talent, there are many who doubt that the young Italian will not live up to the hype generated throughout his junior career.
Wolff shows confidence in Antonelli’s development
One person with no such doubts, however, is Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff, who expects Antonelli to show his prowess as an F1 driver from day one. Wolff believes that Antonelli, who showed “tremendous potential” in the junior categories, will be able to compete with teammate Russell, and ensure that Mercedes can fight at the top of the pack in 2025. However, Wolff believes Antonelli’s priority for the 2025 F1 season will be to develop himself as a driver, ahead of the era of new regulations in 2026.
“When we decided to go for Kimi, it was clear that we are going for a young driver that has shown tremendous potential in the junior series since we’ve known him.”
“For Kimi, it’s about the time to develop, to learn the tracks, to be on top for next year, the regulation change. That means great results and that means moments where it’s going to be more difficult.”
Wolff expects a competitive F1 season from Antonelli
Wolff was further complimentary of his rookie driver and reminded the now-veteran George Russell to expect a fight from his new teammate. However, the Mercedes Team Principal expects Russell to act as a mentor to the young driver, ensuring that the team progresses positively while avoiding rifts between them. Wolff wants to avoid any breakdown in the teammate relationship the likes of which were seen in 2016 between Hamilton and that year’s champion, Nico Rosberg.
“I said to George: ‘We don’t expect you to just be crushing Kimi all the time’.”
“We wouldn’t have hired Kimi if we thought that would be the case. So, I believe in terms of speed, Kimi is going to be right up there with George. There’s a lot to learn in terms of long running the tyres, and the development is going to be steep.
“We have a driver combination of one very young driver, 18 years old, and another young driver, 27 years old, and hopefully they’re going to push each other, and push each other strong.”
Wolff not planning to “flirt outside” as he looks ahead
While Mercedes will undoubtedly be thinking of their future as a team, especially with the ever-evolving dynamics of the driver market, Wolff reiterated his support for his current line-up, He expressed stated that he does not intend to look outside the Mercedes family, of which both Russell and Antonelli are a part, having developed through the Mercedes Junior Team.
“We need to concentrate on our driver line-up,” Wolff said.
“We need to do the best that we have. I don’t flirt outside if we’re having a good relationship. And that is true for this year too. So at the moment, that is not on our radar.”
