Mercedes had a massive void to fill after the announcement that seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton would be moving to Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season.
For the first time since their return to Formula 1, they would be forced to head into the season without a driver who has achieved the most championships in the sport’s history.
Instead of going all in on Max Verstappen, or trying to find a like-for-like replacement for Hamilton, they opted to go in the direction of youth.
Choosing Andrea Kimi Antonelli was a bold move and a show of their faith in youth, as Red Bull once installed in Verstappen, and Ferrari likewise with Charles Leclerc.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli picked by Mercedes due to ‘focus on youth’
Mercedes’ current reserve driver – a man of home origins, Mick Schumacher, was considered to have a chance at taking over from Hamilton.
A German in a German car from a marketing standpoint, with the Schumacher name, would be brilliant for them.
However, he was overlooked in favour of Antonelli, and Chief Communications Officer Bradley Lord has now explained why to Champ1’s YouTube channel.
“I think mainly they chose Kimi and not against someone else, but really we wanted to realise this long-term project and bring it to Formula 1. That was for a few years, our perspective, we didn’t know exactly.
“Then with the departure of Lewis, it was clear that now was the time to activate this project Kimi Antonelli to focus on youth.”
Would it have been fair to give Schumacher a shot instead?
First of all, Antonelli’s performances in Formula 2 have been good for the most part in 2024, especially for his age, but he hasn’t set the world alight.
He’s not that close to contending for the championship, and although he’s very young at 18 years old, he has little experience coming into a big team.
Schumacher was dealt a poor hand during his first Formula 1 stint with Haas, and his career is yet to recover from it, but he is a Formula 2 and 3 champion and has experience.
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Handing him a one-year deal before the start of the new technical regulations in 2026 might have been a fair move, allowing Antonelli more time to develop in Formula 2.
But as we’ve seen before with the current reigning world champion, throwing a driver in at the deep end can work out sometimes.
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