Mercedes are poised to promote academy driver Kimi Antonelli to an F1 seat for 2025. Toto Wolff will take a major gamble by replacing the sport’s most successful driver with a rookie.
Antonelli sits ninth in the F2 championship after six rounds, but he’s convinced Mercedes with his performances in private testing. He’s driven their 2021 and 2022 cars at the Red Bull Ring, Imola and Silverstone.
The Silver Arrows’ board members have been so impressed with his pace and maturity that they’ve unanimously voted to sign him. All that remains now is an announcement.
Mercedes were reportedly ready to unveil him at the Spanish Grand Prix. But they were waiting for Williams to confirm the signing of Carlos Sainz first, and the Ferrari driver hesitated.
While Antonelli has seemingly won the battle for the most coveted vacancy on the 2025 grid, Wolff did consider vastly experienced alternatives. Nico Rosberg says he held extensive discussions with the manager of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso (Flavio Briatore) in Monaco.
And there were also tentative conversations with Alex Albon, who’s impressed at Williams over the last two and a half years. In the end, that interest progressed no further and he signed an extension.
Toto Wolff shares details of Mercedes talks with Carlos Sainz
Speaking to the Car and Driver magazine, via Formula Passion, Wolff confirmed that Mercedes had also entered negotiations with Sainz. This would have meant an effective driver swap with Ferrari given that the Spaniard is the victim of Hamilton’s arrival.
Unlike the talks with Albon, they reached an advanced stage. The two parties were discussing what a contract might look like before Mercedes decided that they wanted to bide their time.
Previous reports have claimed that they offered Sainz a one-year deal. This would have allowed them to promote Antonelli or sign Max Verstappen in 2026, but the eight-time driver-of-the-day winner rejected the proposal.
He couldn’t afford to wait for Mercedes to change their mind. While he’s arguably the most desirable free agent on the market this year, he still needed a fairly swift resolution to the ‘upsetting’ situation around his future.
“We had talks with Carlos Sainz, going so far as to talk about the conditions of a possible agreement,” Wolff said. “But we came to the decision that we would not confirm our choice until the autumn.
“We wanted to leave the question open, both to see what happened with Max, but also to observe how Andrea Kimi Antonelli evolved. And that meant a possible wait until September, October or even November. So with Sainz we decided that it was better for them to act differently.”
Why Sainz could now join Alpine for 2025
Sainz’s failure to reach an agreement with Mercedes will be even more painful in light of their recent progress. They took their first pole position for nearly a year at the Canadian GP and then finished third and fourth in Barcelona, outpacing Ferrari.
Rather than racing for a frontrunner next year, the three-time race-winner finds himself choosing between three of the bottom four teams in the championship. He’s down to Williams, Audi and Alpine.
It was a two-horse race before Briatore’s arrival at Enstone. Sainz had little interest in a return to the Renault brand, but the 74-year-old advisor could help turn the team’s fortunes around after winning titles in the 1990s and 2000s.
What’s more, Alpine are now considering an external engine supply deal. And if they are able to strike an agreement with Mercedes, Sainz knows he could be racing with a top-of-the-class engine come the 2026 regulation changes.
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