Otmar Szafnauer highlighted Toto Wolff’s decision to promote Kimi Antonelli to Mercedes at the beginning of 2025, a choice that initially received criticism but today places the Italian at the forefront of Formula 1. For the former Alpine boss, the executive deserves recognition for betting on the young driver.
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Mercedes needed to choose a replacement for Lewis Hamilton after the seven-time champion decided to leave the team and go to Ferrari in 2025. Instead of hiring another experienced driver, Wolff chose to accelerate Antonelli’s arrival in the category, a decision that ended up being questioned inside and outside F1.
In his second season in the category, Antonelli leads the championship with an 81-point advantage over his teammate, George Russell, and has already accumulated eight GP wins this year. Szafnauer highlighted that Mercedes’ decision at the beginning of last year also had important involvement from Gwen Lagrue, responsible for discovering the Italian’s talent.
“Credit must be given to Toto for taking the risk with Kimi. And also to Gwen Lagrue. He discovered him,” Szafnauer said during the High Performance Racing podcast.
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Wolff himself recalled the criticism after Antonelli’s first victory, achieved in China. Over the radio, the Mercedes boss mocked the questions pointing to the driver’s young age as a reason to keep him in a smaller team before reaching the main structure.
After the race, Wolff explained that many people were saying the promotion was a mistake: “Many voices inside and outside the sport said: ‘It was a mistake to do this.’ So it’s good to have a little revenge. But, obviously, it’s just one win,” he said.
The executive also avoided treating the result as a definitive confirmation of the decision: “This sport we live in is manic-depressive. Today it’s great. In two weeks, we’re in Japan, and he puts the car in the wall, and people say he’s too young. So I think we need to keep our feet on the ground,” Wolff concluded at the time.
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