Wolff spills the secret: 'Picked Antonelli five minutes after Hamilton'
F1 News
Lewis Hamilton caused a shockwave to go through the Formula 1 world when he and Ferrari announced a deal for the 2025 Formula 1 season. The news also took Toto Wolff by surprise. But despite months of speculation about who will replace Hamilton, the Mercedes boss claims he decided on Andrea Kimi Antonelli "five minutes" after Hamilton told him the news. That would've been long before Antonelli made his debut in Formula 2.
Wolff flirted with Max Verstappen after it became clear there was some unrest within Red Bull Racing. But in the last week, it Mercedes confirmed to GPblog that a Verstappen move to Mercedes for 2025 was no longer possible. But Wolff has claimed it was all decided in February when Ferrari announced Hamilton as their driver anyway.
When did Wolff decide on Antonelli?
"I made up my mind five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me that he was going to Ferrari," Wolff told GPblog and others in Italy before going into further details about his talks.
"Obviously, we were discussing other options and also kept the Max [Verstappen] idea. We didn't discount that completely. We were looking at what happened at Red Bull. Instinctively, that is the lineup with these two that I always wanted. Bearing in mind the fast tracking that we did with Kimi and everything related there too. But that was immediately what I wanted to do," Wolff added.
Antonelli will make his official debut in the 2025 Formula 1 season. The Italian was announced as Hamilton's replacement during the Italian Grand Prix weekend at Monza in August.