Formula 1 | Official: Antonelli will succeed Hamilton at Mercedes

The successor to Formula 1 record champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes has been decided: As expected, young hopeful Andrea Kimi Antonelli will sit next to George Russell in the Silver Arrow in 2025. The Italian's crash at his F1 debut in Monza does not change that.

“Our driver line-up for 2025 combines experience, talent, youth and unbridled speed,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff: “Kimi has shown time and again that he has the talent and speed to compete at the top of our sport. We know it will be another big step up, but he impressed us in his F1 tests this year and we will support him every step of the way in his learning process.

Antonelli comes from Mercedes' junior academy. In 2022, he won the German Formula 4. Antonelli then skipped Formula 3 and started in Formula 2 this year, where he has scored two victories to date.

“Getting into Formula 1 is a dream I’ve had since I was a child,” said the Italian.

On Friday, Antonelli drove for the first time in a Formula 1 session in the first free practice session for the Italian GP in the full-throttle temple of Monza. However, his drive in the Silver Arrow was over after just a few minutes – he crashed into the tire wall.

Formula 1: Wolff defeats Antonelli

“He's a rookie, he's very young,” said Wolff after the crash, stressing: “We are ready to invest in his future and these moments will happen, and they will happen next year too. But there will also be a lot of highlights.”

With Antonelli, who is often praised as a “child prodigy,” Mercedes' problem is more “to slow him down than to make him faster,” said Wolff. That's a good thing, because “the second is impossible.”

Lewis Hamilton caused a stir in the Formula 1 driver market at the beginning of the year: after eleven years at Mercedes, he announced that he would drive for Ferrari in 2025.