Lewis Hamilton decided to join Ferrari for the next year, leaving Mercedes to search for a new teammate for George Russell.
There are two paths Mercedes could take. One is to find a very experienced driver to help the team get better. The other is to support their young driver, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and help him learn and grow.
They’ve been talking about drivers like Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel, but they know these drivers might only join if Mercedes improves its performance.
Choosing Antonelli could be less pressure because he’s young and still learning. But Mercedes boss Wolff thinks the decision isn’t easy.
“We’re rebuilding now,” Wolff said. “After three years of these rules, we need to change things up. Maybe we give a young driver a chance with less pressure, or we put in an experienced driver who can help us get better.”
Since Antonelli is already part of the Mercedes team, they can wait and see how things go with other drivers like Verstappen.
Mercedes is giving Antonelli more chances to test their cars this year. He’ll try a 2021 car for the first time in Austria. Wolff said, “We’ve planned this for a while, whether he joins F1 next year or not. We want him to feel comfortable in an F1 car before moving to a newer one.”
Antonelli has been with Mercedes for a while, and they’re excited to see how he does in an F1 car. Wolff mentioned how well another young driver, Ollie Bearman, did in a recent race. It gives them hope that Antonelli will do well too.
