It’s been a busy start to the season for Mercedes, but especially for Toto Wolff. The silver star team keeps getting suitors with each passing week. Since Lewis Hamilton caused an earthquake with the confirmation of his move to Ferrari for 2025, The brand’s CEO feels the pressure to find a replacement worthy of the seven-time world champion. The task seems quite complicated, especially given the rush that everyone seems to be in to know the name of the next driver who will accompany George Russell in the box. Many names sound, But the team asks for calm because only three races have been held in a calendar that will reach twenty-four grands prix. And many pilots still have their future to decide.
For this reason, Mercedes does not close any doors either. All possibilities are on the table and the round of contacts has already begun because they are not the only team that has to finish finalizing its driver lineup for next year. In fact, They even compete with Red Bull, who has Checo Pérez’s seat still up in the air and who, this week, it has been learned that They were probing a Fernando Alonso He will also have to listen to what Aston Martin wants to offer him for the next campaign. But the big name in this campaign is also the big victim of the entry of sir lewis in Maranello: Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard, the only one capable of beating Max Verstappen and Red Bull, remains without a team and car for 2025. “In Australia we have seen a great pilot without a job”, Christian Horner highlighted last Sunday, without ruling out any option other than that energetic seat that still does not have an owner.
But now it is once again Mercedes who points directly to Sainz. In statements that he collects Racing News 365, Toto Wolff He assured that they were looking at the pilots “who are available or who could be interesting for us,” whether they are “the very young, the very veterans in their best years or Carlos (Sainz)”. “Everyone has arguments in their favor,” adds the team boss, who will also be absent from the Japanese GP for the third consecutive year. And even he aims for the highest. In an interview with Fox Sports AustraliaWolff was asked if Max Verstappen is his first choice for the Hamilton job: “Yeah. You see what their level of performance is, but I wouldn’t want to rule out the others.” And he adds, with confidence: “It is a type of relationship that must happen at a certain time, but we don’t know when.”
Returning to the present: “It is a difficult choice because there is no clear criterion for one and everything points to the other,” assumes the Austrian manager, who prefers to take it calmly and think carefully about a decision that will determine the future of a brand that is not complying. with the expectations that were expected for this beginning of the course. After the event in Australia, Mercedes is the fourth best brand, with 26 points, behind Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren. “I just want to take a step back and just monitor the situation. Some of the guys mentioned can sign for other teams and that’s why I’m just looking at it,” insists Wolff, who also has the future of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, debutant in Formula 2, who at 17 years old will soon complete a test with F1, being one of the great protégés of the brand and a real prospect for the future.
