Mercedes boss Toto Wolff sees Kimi Antonelli as his second chance after missing Max Verstappen. Toto Wolff has finally found relief for the regret of not signing Max Verstappen.

After more than a decade, Toto Wolff has finally found relief for the regret of not signing Verstappen back in 2014: the cure is called Andrea Kimi Antonelli

In 2014, Toto Wolff missed the chance to sign a then-underage Max Verstappen to Mercedes, who instead ended up at Red Bull. Now, more than ten years later, according to former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe, young Italian talent Andrea Kimi Antonelli might represent the “cure” for that distant regret.

In 2025, Kimi Antonelli was promoted to full-time Mercedes driver, taking the place of Lewis Hamilton who moved to Ferrari, and he has already impressed, scoring 48 points in the first six races of Formula 1 after only one season in Formula 2. The young Italian driver also took pole in the Miami Sprint and, at just his third race in Japan, broke two records previously held by Verstappen: youngest driver to lead a lap and to set a fastest lap.

With Mercedes making a comeback, Hinchcliffe believes Kimi Antonelli could represent a sort of redemption for Toto Wolff. “Antonelli has been dubbed the new Verstappen and had to replace Lewis Hamilton. Expectations couldn’t have been higher. Any other driver might have crumbled under the pressure. But he handled everything naturally, not letting good or bad results affect him too much, keeping up his enthusiasm and desire to improve,” said the Canadian driver.

“He’s clearly a hard worker and doesn’t get distracted by the idea of being Toto Wolff’s cure for missing out on Max Verstappen all those years ago. He just does what he knows how to do best,” he continued. However, Hinchcliffe did identify one area where Kimi Antonelli still needs improvement: qualifying.

So far, the Italian driver has trailed George Russell by an average of 0.291 seconds in qualifying, with a 6–2 head-to-head in favor of the British driver. For the first time, in the two Miami sessions, Kimi Antonelli managed to beat his teammate. “It’s a very short list of things to improve for a driver with just six races under his belt. That qualifying gap needs to shrink, but Kimi Antonelli is showing he’s on the right track,” he said.