Toto Wolff reveals intriguing thought process behind picking Kimi Antonelli as Lewis Hamilton's successor

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed his thought process that led to him picking Kimi Antonelli as the replacement for Lewis Hamilton. The German team was shocked when the star driver announced that he was leaving the team for Ferrari at the end of the 2024 F1 season.

Wolff admittedly was a bit blindsided by Hamilton's decision, and as he has revealed in multiple interviews since, had he known a bit earlier, he might have reached out to Charles Leclerc or Lando Norris. As it turns out, by mid-season Wolff announced Antonelli as the replacement for Hamilton.

Talking to the media after he announced his decision, Wolff revealed that he had made the call the very moment Hamilton had told him that he was leaving. Talking to Motorsport, Wolff explained how he ended up with Antonelli.

According to the Austrian, the call was between either picking a young driver like Kimi Antonelli and backing him to do well or going for a safe bet on one of the solid drivers on the grid. In the end, Wolff went with the former option. He said:

"Absolutely. With all due respect for the 12 years we spent together and for the friendship and success we had together with Lewis, as soon as he told me his intentions I immediately thought about who would be the next driver to get in the car. There are two schools of thought in these cases: you take a risk, focusing on a young driver who you believe is capable of being up to the task, or you make a more conservative choice, go to the market and take the driver you believe is the best among those available."

He added:

"There was also another aspect that weighed in the evaluations. Putting Kimi in another team to gain experience, like Williams, would have meant selling him for at least two seasons, and I didn't want to commit myself for that long. Furthermore, even if we had found a team willing to welcome Kimi Antonelli for just one season, what motivation would a driver have had to come to Mercedes for a year? These were the thoughts in the minutes after Lewis left my office."

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Kimi Antonelli's rough Formula 2 season wasn't a concern for Mercedes

Kimi Antonelli's rookie F2 season was not as brilliant as many would have hoped. With the change in cars in the series, Prema, the team that Antonelli was a part of, had struggled to get on top of the car, and the result was an underperforming outfit.

This meant that Antonelli would not have the kind of success with the team that many would have hoped for. The Mercedes boss, however, revealed that the intricacies of the series now mean that it's hard to jump to conclusions by just looking at the results. He said:

"No, F3 and F2 are complex categories, you have to be in the right team at the right time. We never had any doubts about Kimi's speed, personality and values, we know he needs time, his growth process has happened very quickly. I have always been convinced that 2025 was the right time for him to make the leap, as next season the technical regulations will change and we want him to arrive at that appointment with a year of experience behind him."

Kimi Antonelli's start to F1 has been steady for now. The young Italian has kept his nose clean more or less and would be looking to build on the foundation in the near future.