Wolff does not see Verstappen as clear number one for Mercedes seat
F1 News
Things are not going smoothly at Mercedes. The German team did not score any points in Australia and is still looking for a replacement for Lewis Hamilton. Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen and Andrea Kimi Antonelli: all still seem to be on Toto Wolff's radar.
With a victory in Australia, Carlos Sainz has put himself in the spotlight, as far as it was still needed. The Spaniard made a strong impression and is still unemployed for 2025. Mercedes has another seat to fill, as that team's star driver will take Sainz's spot at Ferrari in 2025.
Verstappen not first choice for Wolff
Besides Sainz, however, more names are being linked to the seat at Mercedes. Max Verstappen has been increasingly mentioned in recent weeks due to the internal conflict at Red Bull Racing, but Fernando Alonso, with two world titles, is also an interesting driver for Mercedes. The question is, what talents should the new Mercedes driver have?
"You know, that the ones that are available or that could be interesting for us. They all have arguments in favour of them. Be the very young ones, be the very mature ones in the best years or colours [meaning teams]. It's a difficult choice because there is no real, it's not like there is like the KO criteria for one and everything points to the other one. So I just want to do a step back and just monitor the situation because some of the guys you mentioned, they may sign for others teams and so just looking at it," Wolff revealed in Australia.
The very young driver Wolff is referring to is Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes junior, who will be in action in Formula 2 this year, is highly regarded within Mercedes. So Wolff does not want to finalise the line-up too early, only to find out later that his budding Italian star has no place on the 2025 grid. The risk with that, though, is that big names will have already signed with other teams by then.