Ted Kravitz has pinpointed when Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff may decide on his replacement for Lewis Hamilton.
Wolff has known since the winter that Hamilton is joining rivals Ferrari in 2025.
And Kravitz, speaking during Sky Sports F1’s coverage of FP1 at the Japanese Grand Prix, has outlined a possible timeline for the driver search.
Finding a successor is one of the daunting tasks a team principal has faced given Hamilton’s stature within the sport.
He’s statistically the most successful driver in F1 history, with seven world championships, 103 wins and 104 pole positions.
Six of those championships have come with Mercedes, more than any driver has ever won at a single team.
Wolff knew that the second year of Hamilton’s extension, signed last summer, was optional.
George Russell is already locked into one of the Silver Arrows’ seats, with his deal due to run until the end of next year.
Ted Kravitz says Toto Wolff may not make Mercedes driver call until the summer
According to Kravitz, Wolff intends to bide his time before finalising his line-up for 2025.
The rationale is this will give 17-year-old F2 star Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who’s part of the Mercedes driver academy, time to show whether he’s ready for a top F1 seat.
Wolff may not make a decision until late August, and significantly, that could be too late for Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who’s due to make way for Hamilton.
He said: “The timing, unfortunately, might be great in terms of Carlos Sainz’s stock.
“But the timing doesn’t fit with Toto Wolff’s sense of what he does with Kimi Antonelli.
“Toto wants to give Kimi Antonelli as long as possible to see whether he is up to the job.
“And that will mean making a decision as late as possible, maybe towards the end of the European summer.
“And that doesn’t fit with Carlos Sainz’s timeline of wanting to get his drive sorted for 2025 as soon as possible.”
Who will replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes?
Figures inside the F1 paddock regard Antonelli as the next Max Verstappen, but Wolff won’t want to expose him to the pressure of a front-running drive until he knows he’s ready.
There’s a school of thought that he may be better suited to the Russell route of starting out at Williams.
Russell spent three years with the Grove outfit before he replaced Valtteri Bottas for the 2022 season.
Antonelli may even have the chance to jump in the Williams for the second half of 2024 if Logan Sargeant doesn’t improve.
It appears that Wolff’s ultimate target is the reigning world champion Verstappen.
The Austrian is willing to do whatever it takes to land the Dutchman, even targeting Red Bull’s chief engineer Pierre Wache in the hope of luring him.
He’s prepared to offer him a long-term ambassadorial role too, a luxury that wasn’t even afforded to Hamilton.
Verstappen’s former trainer thinks he would only consider leaving Red Bull if he had a better chance of winning elsewhere.
Mercedes have struggled in the early rounds of 2024 and arrived in Suzuka a distant fourth in the standings with no podiums on the board.
However, Verstappen knows there will be major changes to the F1 regulations for 2026, which could potentially shake up the running order.
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