One of the main questions now of interest to the press and fans, which has not yet been answered, is who will be George Russell’s new partner and which team Carlos Sainz will play for in 2025.
Previously it was assumed that Mercedes was ready to offer the Spaniard only a one-year contract, and he did not like it, but now it seems that the situation has changed. For example, Ralf Schumacher has already spoken about this, and now a commentary on the same topic has appeared on the British TV channel Sky Sports.
Once again, there were suggestions that Mercedes was planning to bet on Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who is not yet 18 years old, but this scenario largely depended on how the young Italian performed in Formula 2 this year.
But his debut season as a member of the Prema team in this series is not going so well; in all that time he has only reached the podium once, winning the Saturday sprint at Silverstone, and after eight stages he is only 8th in the individual standings. There are therefore very serious doubts whether Kimi is ready for Formula 1, let alone to compete for a top team.
At the same time, Mercedes is winning the race again: George Russell won in Austria, although that success came somewhat unexpectedly, and Lewis Hamilton distinguished himself at Silverstone. If the team can maintain this form in the second half of the year, it could well become one of the serious contenders for victory in both World Championship events next year.
But for this, Toto Wolff needs the strongest possible line-up, and there is no reason to take risks, because Antonelli will inevitably need time to adapt, and during this time the team will lose points. It would be strange under these circumstances not to resume negotiations with Carlos Sainz, who has the experience of almost 200 Grands Prix and three victories.
“I don’t want to make a quick decision. “But yes, he (Sience) really interests us,” Wolff confirmed during the race weekend at Silverstone. – If we have more time to make a decision, then Carlos definitely has a chance. But he has to decide for himself how to act in the negotiations with other teams.”
If Sainz does indeed sign for Mercedes, there will still be vacancies at the three other teams that have been interested in the Spaniard’s services at various stages of the now seemingly endless series of discussions over his future employment: Sauber, Williams and Alpine.
It is known that the experienced Valtteri Bottas has already held preliminary negotiations with James Vowles, the head of Williams, but a scenario in which the Finn could remain at Sauber cannot be ruled out.
The obvious choice for Alpine would be Jack Douhan, the team’s reserve driver who is currently active in testing, but if the Renault factory team is interested in Sainz’s services, it means they are not entirely convinced of the validity of their bet on the Australian.
In general, we will keep an eye on how things progress, and its development may accelerate significantly at some point.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
