Mercedes officially confirms Antonelli for 2025!

The record world champion had already announced before the start of the 2024 Formula 1 season that he would be racing for Ferrari next year. In the following months, Mercedes junior Antonelli increasingly emerged as George Russell's new teammate.

At the first race after the summer break in Zandvoort, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff let it be known in a media round that they had finally decided on Antonelli. This was now officially confirmed at his home race in Monza.

Wolff: Antonelli will cope with the pressure

There, Antonelli was allowed to take part in an official Formula 1 training session for Mercedes for the first time on Friday, but after just ten minutes he had an accident that ended his session prematurely. “The most important thing is that he is OK, because the crash had 45g,” reports Wolff.

“He's a rookie, he's very young,” the Austrian recalls, clarifying: “We are ready to invest in his future and these moments will happen, and they will happen next year too. But there will also be a lot of highlights.”

“We have more of a problem with slowing him down than making him faster. Because what we can do in one and a half laps [in FT1] “It’s just amazing to see,” praises Wolff, adding: “I think a stronger rider has to be able to recover from things like that and handle the pressure.”

“And obviously this weekend was not easy for him because he also has to compete in Formula 2. In Monza you have all this nonsense around you: an Italian kid who is hyped because he is sitting in a Mercedes for the first time,” he recalls.

“That must be a heavy burden,” said Wolff. But: “If he wants to become champion one day, he has to deal with it, and I have no doubt that he can and will do that.” Therefore, the crash had no impact on the choice of driver for 2025.

Accident on Friday part of the “development curve”

“The most important thing is that you hire a driver based on his abilities. And a FT1 that went wrong is not the reason why you decide for or against the driver,” Wolff clarifies, stressing: “We live in our own micro-bubble here.”

His message to Antonelli before training was that he should simply “enjoy” it. “Nobody is interested in FT1 anyway. Whatever happens, happens. And we just carry on. And that's what I told him after the session,” he reveals.

Ultimately, days like Friday are part of a driver's “development curve.” “It's been a while since an Italian driver was in a top team. I'm sure that can be a lot for an 18-year-old,” explains Wolff.

“Is that the reason why he ended up in the wall? Maybe. But I look at the performance. As I said, I would rather slow someone down than make them go fast. Because the second is impossible,” the team boss explains again.

Antonelli has been a Mercedes junior since 2019 and has been competing in formula racing since 2021 after a successful karting career. In 2022, he won the title in the Italian and German Formula 4 in his first full season.

In 2023, he won two more Formula Regional titles and then skipped Formula 3 to move straight up to Formula 2 in 2024. With four race weekends to go, he is currently in seventh place overall with two wins.