Kimi Antonelli has reportedly signed his Mercedes contract for 2025, and the Silver Arrows are believed to have organized a special ceremony for the Italian driver.
Antonelli is set to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, which won’t be easy. He is the team’s most successful driver ever and won six World Championships since joining in 2013. But Toto Wolff believes in Antonelli and touts the 17-year-old as a future World Champion.
Antonelli’s move will become official at the Italian GP weekend, and Mercedes has something unique planned. “A symbolic mini handover ceremony is expected between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli,” RTL states.
“Lewis Hamilton ile Kimi Antonelli arasında sembolik olarak mini bir devir teslim töreni yapılması bekleniyor.” (RTL) pic.twitter.com/Q6Tj4sMHcQ
— Eau Rouge (@eaurouge_ps) August 8, 2024
Monza has been chosen as the venue for this because Antonelli is Italian, and also because it is Ferrari’s (Hamilton’s next team) home race.
The handover of the baton will be symbolic of Hamilton passing the torch to Antonelli. The Briton has been with Mercedes for over a decade and will be shifting his trust and responsibilities over to Antonelli now. Hamilton has always been happy to see his former team McLaren succeed, and his feelings for Mercedes should be the same when he moves to Ferrari.
In the past, teams have made videos for their departing drivers. But never has there ever been a handover to the driver replacing the current one.
Karun Chandhok Hails Mercedes’ Bold Move to Sign Antonelli
Initially, Wolff wanted to sign Max Verstappen, who would have been a like-for-like replacement for Hamilton. However, the Dutchman placed his faith in Red Bull, which is why Wolff took a brave approach and signed Antonelli, despite his less experience.
“You have to applaud Mercedes,” said former F1 driver Karun Chandhok. “We constantly say that teams are doing the morning things and making boring decisions. But here you’ve got Toto Wolff and a top team rolling the dice. And taking a risk on a young star. I kind of respect that as well”.
Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin recently came out to speak highly of the young Italian. Antonelli is performing well in the F2 series. And is outperforming teammate Oliver Bearman, who is also joining the F1 grid next year.
