Dr. Helmut Marko admits that Kimi Antonelli's potential may not necessarily translate into success at Mercedes.
"It's not guaranteed," Marko said, referring to Antonelli's potential at the team.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes team principal, had openly considered Max Verstappen as a possible replacement for the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton. However, he ultimately chose to fast-track the 18-year-old Italian rookie Antonelli into the works team for 2025.
"It's time to make a generational change after Lewis, because nothing will be the same anymore," Wolff told Autosprint.
"We'll have a young team next year. Going into the season with George (Russell) and Antonelli means we're starting a new era.
"The previous era was great but now it's time to turn the page and make a fresh start."
A more traditional route into Formula 1 for Antonelli would have been through a loan deal with a team like Williams, similar to how George Russell entered F1. But Wolff preferred to bring Antonelli directly into Mercedes to avoid him being "contaminated" by another team.
"If he were to go to another team first, he would learn different things, show different behaviour, have different ideas about technical things than we do. We want to avoid that," Wolff explained.
"The goal is to write a new success story like the one that happened with Lewis."
Wolff had previously expressed regret about missing out on signing Max Verstappen when the Dutch driver was younger, which pushed him to secure Antonelli so stridently.
Marko, who heads Red Bull's successful driver program, admitted he had noticed Antonelli's talent a few years ago.
"I was impressed by his speed," Marko told motorsport-total.com. "But you can't have them all," he added with a grin.
"Max is Max, of course, so now he (Antonelli) has to prove himself. He has to get results now, and that is not guaranteed. We have all seen drivers who lose their motivation, get a girlfriend, and lose their edge. It has all happened before," Marko concluded.
