29 February 2024 , 04:00
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Toto Wolff has admitted that Mercedes weren't willing to offer Lewis Hamilton a fixed long-term contract because the team didn't want to risk losing rising star Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Hamilton, 39, signed a new contract with Mercedes last August, a two-year deal which includes a break clause. The seven-time world champion exercised that option last month, agreeing to join rivals Ferrari for the 2025 season.
It was a move which shook the Formula 1 landscape, but as Wolff has revealed, Mercedes had another driver in mind, one who he's labelled a "wonderkid." Italian protege Antonelli, who's just 17, has been labelled the 'next Max Verstappen' and will make his F2 debut this season amid increasing hype surrounding his future.
That'll be with Prema, having won the Formula Regional European Championship last year and Italian F4 in 2022. Wolff has now compared the situation involving Hamilton and Antonelli to a similar dilemma in 2014, when Mercedes wanted to sign future three-time world champion Verstappen but had no seat to give him - unlike Red Bull.
"There was a situation many years ago where we had the opportunity to let Max drive," Wolff told Austrian broadcaster ORF ahead of the new F1 season. "And that wasn't possible back then because we simply didn't have a cockpit.
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"[Nico] Rosberg and Hamilton were tied to us long-term, and Red Bull naturally seized the opportunity. They gave him a contract with Toro Rosso, with the possibility of driving for Red Bull the following year.
"We then lost the young driver, and you can see how successful he has become. And precisely because we have a junior on the horizon who is really driving at a very high level, I simply wanted to keep this option open."
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Andrea Kimi Antonelli is already being touted as the 'next Max Verstappen' (Ryan Pierse - Formula 1/Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images)The Mercedes boss was, though, keen to stress that their spare 2025 seat isn't necessarily being reserved for Antonelli. "He is 17 years old, and that might be a bit early. But with a view to the next five or ten years, I just wanted to have this option," Wolff explained.
"In a way, he's a wonderkid. He won everything there was to win in karting and then moved into F4. He won all the championships in his rookie year, then moved up a level and won everything there too."
"Now we've decided to skip F3, partly because there's not much time to test there. Instead, he'll go straight into F2, which is a huge leap for him. These are really big cars with power. Most of the races are part of the F1-supporting programme, so we'll have a good overview there, too."