Toto Wolff: Kimi Antonelli will follow in Lewis Hamilton’s footsteps at Mercedes. Kimi Antonelli will follow the path left by Lewis Hamilton, according to Mercedes boss.

Kimi Antonelli will follow the path left by Lewis Hamilton, who will be joining Scuderia Ferrari starting with the 2025 Formula 1 season: Toto Wolff has no doubt about the talent of the Italian driver, who, at just eighteen years old, will drive for Mercedes next season. The team principal of the German team will personally oversee Antonelli in this new journey, with the goal of not putting any pressure on him.

Toto Wolff’s idea is to proceed in the same way it was done for Lewis Hamilton when he debuted with McLaren back in 2007. At the time, McLaren boss Ron Dennis minimized the pressure on Lewis Hamilton: “You can’t expect, and we don’t expect, immediate performances,” he said at the start of the championship.

However, the pressure on Kimi Antonelli is already being felt, given his young age and undeniable talent. Some media outlets are already calling him “the next Max Verstappen.” In a recent interview with Autosprint, Toto Wolff admitted how they plan to integrate the Italian racing driver into Mercedes: “I think the project that has inspired me the most is the one most similar to Hamilton’s career.” He continued, “Lewis Hamilton’s growth in the junior categories and his impact in Formula 1 happened in a period when it was possible to test much more than Kimi is able to do now. At the time, Ron said that Lewis needed to take it easy to get used to F1, especially because [Fernando] Alonso was at McLaren. However, that never happened; Lewis was immediately competitive and successful.” – he pointed out.

“With the current preparation, Kimi can get into our car and be competitive. However, today’s F1 is a different beast compared to when Lewis Hamilton debuted. There are many more dimensions and facets than in the past. There is more pressure and more social media, so I think it’s important that everything goes in the right direction, to keep the right priorities, and to avoid what’s unnecessary. The goal is to create a new success story, just like with Hamilton,” – the Mercedes team principal concluded.