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With Lewis Hamilton set to leave Mercedes in 2025, the team is now looking for the best option to sign alongside George Russell, and Toto Wolff even mentioned the young talent Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Many drivers have already been linked to the free Mercedes seat for next year, like Fernando Alonso. However, the British outfit might have an ace up its sleeve. Since he was 11 years old, Kimi Antonelli has been part of the Mercedes family. He has shown his great talent in karting and with single-seaters as well.

He didn’t even take part in the Formula 3 category and immediately made the jump to Formula 2. Wolff knows him well, and he reckons he is very talented, but he doesn’t want to put too much pressure on the young Italian’s shoulders.

“It’s clear Kimi has been in our junior category since he was 11, and we have had great pleasure in watching him grow as a young man and growing through the ranks.

“But I also want to take a bit of pressure off him. He’s 17. He’s won everything he needed to win in his rookie season, but I think he is going to be a Formula 1 driver. He’s going to be a very, very successful driver in Formula 1. But he hasn’t started his Formula 2 campaign yet.”

Wolff continued by admitting that even though Kimi is a great driver, and he is sure he will reach Formula 1, he wants to be cautious. The Formula 2 season is yet to start, and he wants to see how the Italian performs.

“They had a difficult test in the first days in Bahrain, and we shall see how this develops.

“I want to wait out the first F2 races that are actually going to go with Formula 1.

“There are many very good pilots in Formula 1 available for next year or so and this is all going to come into the equation when deciding on the driver line-up for next year, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.”