Toto Wolff is aiming to “create a new success story” with Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes following Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari for the F1 2025 season.

Today (December 31) marks Hamilton‘s last official day as a Mercedes driver, with the seven-time World Champion’s contract set to expire at midnight.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli to follow Lewis Hamilton path at Mercedes?

Hamilton announced back in February that he will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from the F1 2025 season, having worked with Mercedes throughout his F1 career.

Mercedes confirmed junior sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli as Hamilton’s successor at this year’s Italian Grand Prix, with the 18-year-old widely regarded as the most exciting talent to arrive in F1 since reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen made his debut aged 17 a decade ago.

Antonelli’s rise has been likened to that of Hamilton, who started his career behind the wheel of a front-running car at McLaren as team-mate to reigning Champion Fernando Alonso in 2007.

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Hamilton required just six races to secure his maiden F1 victory, just missing out on becoming the sport’s first-ever rookie World Champion before landing his first title the following year.

Wolff is hopeful that Antonelli, who commenced an extensive F1 testing program with Mercedes this year to prepare for his debut season, can replicate Hamilton’s route to glory.

Asked if Verstappen’s career path could prove the template for Mercedes’ plans for Antonelli, he told Italian publication Autosprint: “I think the project that inspired me more is the one that is more similar to Hamilton’s career.

“His growth in the junior categories and his impact in Formula 1 came at a time when you could test a lot more than Kimi has been able to do now.

“Ron [Dennis, McLaren boss] at the time said Lewis needed to take it easy to get used to F1, also because Alonso was at McLaren.

“However, that never happened. Lewis was immediately competitive and a success.

“With the current preparation, Kimi can jump into our car and be competitive.

“However, F1 now is a different animal than it was at the time of Hamilton’s debut. There are a lot more dimensions and facets compared to the past.

“There is more pressure and social media, so I think it is important to keep everything moving in the right direction, keep the right priorities and avoid what is not essential.

“The goal is to create a new success story as happened with Hamilton.”

Hamilton gave his backing to the signing of Antonelli at May’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, telling media including PlanetF1.com that “taking on a youngster” would be the right move if he were in Wolff’s shoes.

Speaking to Sky Italy in October, Antonelli revealed that Hamilton has been helpful in the youngster’s preparations for F1 2025, having studied the seven-time World Champion closely at the Singapore Grand Prix.

He said: “I didn’t expect that, he’s very nice and talks to me a lot. And looking at the data, his driving style seems similar to mine.

“I was in Singapore and listening to him talk to the engineers – I learned a lot.”

Antonelli memorably crashed out of his maiden FP1 appearance at Monza in August, one day before he was confirmed as Hamilton’s replacement for F1 2025.

Wolff later conceded that Mercedes were unwise to stage Antonelli’s first outing on a grand prix weekend at his home race in Italy, having underestimated the scrutiny on the boy wonder.

He said: “I wouldn’t say it was a mistake, but I think we weren’t completely right in assessing the pressures that he could find himself under.

“We talked about it and how to approach the session. He has been brilliant in testing. He has never put a single foot wrong in the many thousands of kilometres that he’s done.

“But it’s a different ball game if you’re an Italian driver, you’re 18 years old at Monza and it’s your first opportunity.

“Maybe if we had considered that as a risk factor against the set of data we had from him, probably it would have been wise to give him an FP1 that would have been in a totally different time zone than Italy. But he will learn a lot from that.”

Wolff maintained that Antonelli’s pace during his brief outing at Monza was astonishing, with the speed he demonstrated pointing to a promising future as a full-time Mercedes driver.

He added: “I thought it’s not good for him, because I thought it’s a shame for him.

“He was so quick, and that was his first session in Italy, about to be announced as a driver, which everybody pre-empted.

“I like his approach. He’s fast on the first lap out of the pits and that is what he’s demonstrated.

“Obviously, I would have enjoyed him being on the leaderboard high up and that was taken away because the car flew – and some of those speeds were only achieved [by others] much later during the weekend.

“Obviously he was too fast for the condition of the track and for the car at that stage, so it was balancing the ambition, the motivation and the skill versus also the experience that FP1 is FP1.

“I knew that that was going to hurt him emotionally.”

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