At the Mexican Grand Prix, Mercedes reaped the reward for the courage it showed by putting then 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli in the cockpit from 2025 with its world championship triumph in its second Formula 1 season.
It was a courage that not everyone in the Mercedes sphere shared from the start, as team principal Toto Wolff now reveals.
“We had two sponsors leave us because of that. They asked me: ‘Kimi Antonelli, who is this kid supposed to be?'” Wolff told Sky Sports. “And there are others who have stayed with us to this day, and they are now reaping the rewards.”
Before the 2024 season even started, superstar Lewis Hamilton announced he would be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari. For months, the media speculated about who might succeed the seven-time world champion. Max Verstappen in particular was considered a hot candidate this summer. Also because Antonelli was unable to meet the high expectations of Formula 2 in 2024 and only achieved his first of two victories this season in the 15th of 28 races.
According to Wolff, the media could have spared themselves their speculation, because in reality everything was very simple: “When Lewis showed up at my door that morning, everything was already clear to me. The moment he confirmed that he was going to Ferrari, I knew that Kimi would be in the car.”
Wolff remembers talking about it shortly after to his press chief and current assistant team manager, Bradley Lord, and his technical director, James Allison. “I told them, ‘Kimi’s in the car.’ They just said, “What are you talking about?” But we had the data. We no longer needed confirmation. Kimi had already confirmed this through his successes in Formula 4 and Formula Regional. The rest was crystal clear. »
Jérôme d’Ambrosio, Director of Driver Development, Mercedes-AMG, Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes-AMG, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Wolff does not reveal who the two sponsors were who no longer wanted to be partners with Mercedes without superstar Hamilton. But it is known that the fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger and the sporting goods manufacturer Puma left the team at the end of 2024. In their place, with Adidas, a new global brand joined the team. And with Gillette, an agreement was already taking shape which ultimately came to nothing. The brand known for its razors has instead turned to Audi.
But while many around them doubted whether it was really a good idea to move Antonelli straight from Formula 2 to the Mercedes factory, for Wolff it didn’t seem “at any time like a risk. I’m sometimes asked why I take risks. But I only take calculated risks – those where the worst possible outcome is that our life in the team I’m responsible for still doesn’t fundamentally change.”
“The team always supported this decision. (Mercedes CEO) Ola (Kallenius) always supported this decision. There was no doubt. The doubts only came from the outside. From people who were team partners at the time and are no longer partners now. Other teams, other drivers who felt they deserved a chance themselves. And the media.”
“It started with people saying, ‘You can’t be serious about putting an 18-year-old in the car that Lewis Hamilton used to drive. He had a disappointing Formula 2 season. He should do another year in Formula 2 and first prove that he’s really good enough.'”
2025: doubts about Antonelli become loud
“Then, once we put him in the car, people said: ‘He shouldn’t be in a Mercedes. It’s way too much pressure for him. Why didn’t you try to reach an agreement with Williams and give him, like George, one, two or three years to develop?’ And of course, those voices became even louder after he went nine consecutive races without scoring any points.”
When Antonelli endured one of the bitterest race weekends of his first season on the Spa drivers’ circuit in the summer of 2025, during which, according to Wolff, there were also “tears”, “those who said ‘I told you so’ suddenly gained more and more momentum. But for us, for me personally, there was never the slightest doubt.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Toto Wolff, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
“2025 was exactly the season I expected. It was clear to me that this would be at least a two-year project, with the second year having to confirm what we had seen in him. And I think today we are sitting here and received that confirmation. It’s incredible. We really have to pinch ourselves, because it feels like it was only yesterday that he was standing in a garage in junior karting at the age of 11.
“And then everything happens so quickly. He wins the junior single-seater series, then has a difficult year in Formula 2. And even then, people from the outside started to doubt him. I’m just incredibly proud of the team, that everyone continued to believe in him. And he kept his promises.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5-minute survey.
– The Motorsport.com team
Gn sports
