Kimi Antonelli to forget Max Verstappen: Toto Wolff’s revelation

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A young promise to forget a past disappointment.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli è Mercedes’ big bet for its 2025 Formula 1 season, the Brackley stable’s first season without Lewis Hamilton since 2013. A courageous choice, which team principal Toto Wolff wanted to explain by recalling that the very absence of courage cost in the past the possible engagement of Max Verstappen.

"It still seems strange to me, if not surreal, to think that Hamilton will be wearing the Ferrari suit,” Wolff revealed in an appearance on the podcast 'Armchair Experts with Dax Shepard' -. Forò in Mercedes we were working on the growth of a 17-year-old like Antonelli, and I did not want to run the risk of letting him get away as happened in the days with Verstappen".

Wolff then explained what Verstappen’s possible signing at Mercedes cost: "I didn’t have a car available for him immediately, and so he didn’t sign for us. Now there was Antonelli in the pipeline, and even Hamilton knew that. I could not make such a decision on a personal level, because we owe him a lot. And I did not want to be the one responsible for the farewell of the greatest champion ever".

"I understand his point of view, because by then our car was not fast enough. He then had a colossal offer on the table, and every Formula 1 driver aims to drive for Ferrari. Maybe Hamilton also felt the same way as I did, we both knew that at this point we would separate our ways", Wolff added.

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