Oct.7 (GMM) Dr Helmut Marko admits it is “not guaranteed” that Kimi Antonelli’s clear potential will be converted into success at Mercedes.
Toto Wolff openly flirted with Max Verstappen as the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes, but ultimately decided to fast-track 18-year-old Italian rookie Antonelli directly into the works seat from 2025.
“It’s time to make a generational change after Lewis, because nothing will be the same anymore,” the team boss told Italian magazine Autosprint.
“We’ll have a young team next year. Going into the season with George (Russell) and Antonelli means we’re starting a new era. The previous era was great but now it’s time to turn the page and make a fresh start.”
A more conventional way into F1 for Antonelli would have been a loan deal with Williams for a season or two – similar to Russell in the past. But Wolff says he wanted the fresh-faced F2 driver to be “not contaminated” by another team.
“If he were to go to another team first, he would learn different things, show different behaviour, have different ideas about technical things than we do. We want to avoid that,” said the Austrian.
“The goal is to write a new success story like the one that happened with Lewis.”
Wolff has explained in the past that, after missing out on Max Verstappen’s signature when the Dutchman was a teenager, he was determined to snap up Antonelli.
Marko, the architect of Red Bull’s successful and notorious driver program, admits he eyed Antonelli a few years ago.
“I was impressed by his speed,” he told motorsport-total.com. “But you can’t have them all,” the 81-year-old grinned.
“Max is Max, of course, so now he (Antonelli) has to prove himself. He has to get results now and that is not guaranteed. We have all seen drivers who lose their motivation, get a girlfriend and lose their edge. It has all happened before.”