"I have no doubt you'll bring a lot to the team": Lewis Hamilton congratulates Kimi Antonelli on being promoted to Mercedes as his replacement

Lewis Hamilton recently congratulated Kimi Antonelli for replacing him for the 2025 F1 season. The seven-time world champion will soon move to Ferrari, ending his 12-year-run with the Silver Arrows.

Mercedes was compelled to begin searching for Hamilton's replacement when he declared that he would leave the team to join the Italian giants in 2025. A series of reports surfaced in the following months suggesting that the team was considering Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, and Antonelli, their junior driver, as potential replacements.

Antonelli made his F1 debut in the first practice session at the Italian GP. He drove George Russell's car during the session and clocked some impressive lap times in the beginning. However, he crashed out on the Parabolica turn. Nonetheless, Mercedes announced signing him for the 2025 season.

Hamilton has congratulated the young F2 driver for entering F1 with Mercedes. He added that he hoped Antonelli would help the team grow alongside Russell in 2025. The seven-time world champion posted a message on his official Instagram stories and said:

"Congrats @kimi.antonelli [Kimi Antonelli's account]. I have no doubt that you will bring a lot to the team alongside George (Russell) next year."

Lewis Hamilton's Instagram story congratulating Kimi Antonelli on getting a Mercedes seat for 2025 (@lewishamilton)

As of now, Mercedes has announced that Antonelli will race for the 2025 F1 season. They have not revealed any information about his future after the next year. Meanwhile, Hamilton will most likely drive for Ferrari till the end of 2026, when the FIA will introduce new power unit regulations.

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Lewis Hamilton hopes Mercedes improves when Kimi Antonelli joins the team

Lewis Hamilton recently talked about his poor performance at the 2024 F1 Italian GP qualifying session. He also added that hopefully, Kimi Antonelli will perform better with Mercedes when the Italian replaces him in 2025.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Hamilton explained that he will be thinking about his poor qualifying for quite some time. He also praised Mercedes for greatly developing the W15.

"I will be kicking myself for the next couple of hours but I need to move forward. We have a good race car, and the team have done an amazing job. The car felt better and the team deserved better. Maybe they will get that with Kimi Antonelli."

Hamilton qualified P6 in the Italian GP. However, he will start the race ahead of both Red Bull drivers, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. McLaren's Lando Norris took pole position and Oscar Piastri secured second. Hamilton's current teammate, George Russell, secured P3.