Lewis Hamilton Fights Nico Rosberg’s Claims in Choosing His Mercedes Replacement for 2025

Remember the heated moment between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton during the 2016 F1 season, where in the cooldown room, the Brit threw the Pirelli podium caps towards his teammate? Ever since the 2016 season, the duo doesn’t seem to come to an agreement on anything, and the 7X champ now fights Nico Rosberg’s claims in choosing the Mercedes replacement for 2025.

Lewis Hamilton’s announcement of the Ferrari move for 2025 left Toto Wolff with the headache of finding someone capable of filling the boots of a 7X champ. Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, and Kimi Antonelli are all advised as possible options. However, Max Verstappen doesn’t seem to be interested in leaving Red Bull after his recent comments about being happy with the team. Carlos Sainz on the other hand is believed to be super close to signing with Audi.

This leaves Wolff with the option of Kimi Antonelli. The F2 rookie has been testing with Mercedes’ F1 team, driving the 2021 and 2022 competitors. The Silver Arrows are trying to gauge if Antonelli will be a good fit for Mercedes. However, Nico Rosberg recently came out to suggest that the Italian is not ready for Mercedes, and it’ll be too early for Toto Wolff to sign him. Rosberg advised Antonelli to spend a year at Williams before making the Mercedes move.

Lewis Hamilton has completely disregarded Rosberg’s statement as he suggested that Antonelli should be the one replacing him. As per Crash.net, Hamilton said, “Carlos is a great driver so I think wherever he goes I think he would be a positive for any team. Honestly, I have no idea what Toto’s plans are but for me, taking on a youngster. If it was my job, if it was my role, I would probably take on Kimi.”

There have been rumors about Williams applying for a special request to allow Kimi Antonelli to race for them. Is Logan Sargeant’s seat at risk?

James Vowles confirms Kimi Antonelli as a candidate for the 2025 seat

The Miami GP weekend brought along the rumor of Kimi Antonelli replacing Logan Sargeant from the Imola GP as Williams reportedly asked FIA for a special request to put Antonelli in the car. The rules need a driver to be 18 years or older. However, the Italian F2 driver is only 17, hence the request. James Vowles however came out to rubbish these rumors and suggested that they’re looking at Antonelli as a possible option for the 2025 driver pairing.

With the rumors of Antonelli replacing Sargeant for the Imola GP going around the paddock, Vowles confirmed, “There was a rumor going around that he’ll be in the car from Imola – he won’t be in the car for Imola. What we’re doing at the moment is evaluating drivers for ‘26 and ‘25, and what we really want is the right driver pairing for those two years, as when you go through regulation changes [as the sport will do in 2026] you don’t want to be changing drivers, so you’re looking for the right pairing for that period of time.”

With Alex Albon’s contract announced yesterday, will we get to see a pairing of Albon and Antonelli at Williams next year?