The 2025 Formula 1 season is shaping up to be a decisive battle for a seat at Mercedes, with George Russell and new rookie Kimi Antonelli potentially vying for a single spot.
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, officially confirmed on Saturday that Antonelli will replace Lewis Hamilton, who is moving to Ferrari next year. However, despite the 18-year-old Italian being Wolff's long-term protégé, he has only been promised a single season—2025—in the Mercedes car.
The reason for this is that Wolff is keeping a seat open for Max Verstappen, potentially for 2026.
Like Antonelli, Russell's contract also expires at the end of 2025.
"All of our focus in the team is on George and Kimi," Wolff emphasized at Monza.
"There is no discussion, no doubt, about what we are doing for 2026, because we are talking about 2024 and 2025. If we start flirting with another driver, the drivers in our team will know about it first because I always advocate openness with my employees."
Wolff seems to be taking a dual approach—expressing commitment to Russell and Antonelli while clearly considering Verstappen for 2026.
He acknowledged that both Antonelli and Russell are only secured through 2025.
"We always have very short contracts because it's a pressure vessel," the Austrian explained. "Merciless performance is expected," he told ORF. "I hope this is our lineup for many years."
"I'm 100 percent happy with the two of them."
However, former F1 driver Robert Doornbos is skeptical. "What Kimi has to realise, and George too, is that they are going to have a shootout with each other. Because in 2026 there has to be a seat available for Max," he commented to Ziggo Sport.
Despite this, Wolff reassures his drivers for 2025 that they should not be worried.
"These two drivers are the future," he stated. "They are Mercedes drivers and they will remain so, which is why we have signed long-term contracts with both of them."
"It gets complicated when it comes to options and so on, so there is obviously pressure on them, but at Mercedes, it has always been the case that there is high pressure. But right now we as a team want to rely on these two drivers."
"With Lewis, we recently had an agreement for one year plus a further one year as an option, but the most important thing now is that we see how George and Kimi are doing, and at the moment I see no reason not to give them the confidence to move forward together."
"We will clarify between ourselves what this means for the contract terms," Wolff added. "But we would not have made this choice of drivers if we were not absolutely convinced that they were the best choice for Mercedes."
