Wolff made it clear that he is betting on Antonelli

Toto Wolff once again hinted that Mercedes is mainly considering the candidacy of the young Italian racer Andrea Kimi Antonelli as Lewis Hamilton’s successor.

In the paddock, various rumors and versions are constantly discussed about possible contenders for the place of the new teammate of George Russell, and in this regard several names are heard, starting with Max Verstappen. However, it appears that the three-time world champion wants to stay at Red Bull Racing and Mercedes is not interested in the services of Carlos Sainz.

“We just want to focus on Kimi because we entrust our future to young drivers,” Wolff told Sky Deutschland. “We intend to promote young riders and that is what we explained to Carlos.”

Not so long ago, Antonelli worked with Mercedes reserve racer Mick Schumacher on tests, which also caused certain rumors – the team would compare their speed capabilities to find out who was faster, and this would influence the choice.

However, Toto Wolff called the talk that 17-year-old Kimi preceded not only Schumacher, but also George Russell, nonsense: “Kimi and Mick carried out the programs proposed to them and showed exactly the results we expected.

There were rumors that Kimi was faster than George and much faster than Mick, but this is complete nonsense. All three were working on different programs, all three were equally fast, with George being much faster than everyone else – that’s exactly how it should be. But we acted in accordance with our programs and the goal of achieving impressive lap times was not set at all.”

Kimi Antonelli is part of Mercedes’ youth program and made his Formula 2 debut this season as part of the Prema team, although his results so far have not been brilliant: he has not been able to rise above 4th place in the races come and he is in 6th place in the individual rankings.