Martin Brundle has predicted which driver will succeed Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for the 2025 F1 season. The Silver Arrows have known since the winter that the seven-time world champion would be joining rivals Ferrari.
Given that Hamilton is the most successful driver in F1 history with 103 wins and 104 poles in addition to his titles, finding a successor is a daunting task for team principal Toto Wolff. The partnership between the British driver and Mercedes has been the most fruitful the sport has ever seen.
Nonetheless, Brundle, who was speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, thinks Wolff already has a successor in mind. But he might hold fire before he pulls the trigger on the signing.
The Austrian has been going after reigning world champion Max Verstappen with all he has. He’s offered Verstappen a lucrative post-racing ambassadorship, and even thought about moving for chief engineer Pierre Wache as a means of luring the Dutchman.
However, the expectation is that the 26-year-old, who’s under contract at Red Bull until the end of 2028, will stay put. Verstappen is on course to win a fourth straight title in dominant fashion, so has little immediate reason to leave.
Martin Brundle names the driver Mercedes ‘will try’ to hire
Even though half the grid are out of contract, Brundle reckons that Wolff will look outside the existing pool of F1 drivers for his replacement. 17-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli, part of Mercedes’ driver academy, has just started out in F2.
And Brundle believes that, if he proves that he’s ‘ready’ in the second tier, Wolff will take the plunge and promote him to the top team. This would mean bypassing the intermediate step taken by George Russell, who spent three years at Williams before he took over from Valtteri Bottas.
He said: “I think if Mercedes, if Antonelli’s ready, they’ll try and put Antonelli in Lewis Hamilton’s seat.”
Antonelli is racing for the Prema team in F2 alongside Ferrari junior and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix star Oliver Bearman. There have previously been reports that he could jump into Logan Sargeant’s Williams after he turns 18 this summer as a de facto trial.
Kimi Antonelli is ‘the next Charles Leclerc’
Antonelli is apparently ‘looking likely’ to get the seat as it stands, and that reflects Wolff’s huge excitement about the Italian prodigy. The belief at Mercedes is that he could be ‘the next Charles Leclerc‘ or Max Verstappen given his level of talent.
He won the Formula Regional championships in both Europe and the Middle East last season, bagging eight wins, seven poles and 18 podiums from 35 races across the two series. 2024 offers the biggest test yet, and he’s made a quiet but solid start in F2.
Karun Chandhok has told Mercedes it would be ‘safer’ to sign Carlos Sainz, who’s lost his spot to Hamilton at Ferrari, but the Silver Arrows may well take the risk. Ted Kravitz expects Wolff to make a decision over his line-up this summer, giving Antonelli time to prove himself.
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