On several occasions, the Andrea Kimi Antonelli to Mercedes storyline has gotten seemingly concrete developments only to be proven rumors later. Team Principal Toto Wolff was entirely supporting the 17-year-old, contradicting experts like his former driver Nico Rosberg, who said it was too early for Antonelli to drive in F1. But after weeks of training the F2 prodigy, Wolff seems to have caved in and accepted the inexperience claims.

Ahead of the Emilia Romagna GP, Lewis Hamilton was asked about his perfect Mercedes replacement. “If it was my role, I would probably take on Kimi (Antonelli),” he said, subtly advising Toto Wolff. 2024 and 2025 might be a write-off for the Silver Arrows, anyway. So placing Antonelli at this junction would give him a stress-free rookie year.

Interestingly, Wolff even dropped a big hint at Hamilton’s replacement in Imola. “Maybe there is an option that we shine more with an Italian in our car,” the Austrian said, maybe attempting to please the home crowd. But soon after, he played down any such possibility. “We are hyping the young man for a long time now,” Wolff told reporters. “He will be very good and a great driver one day in Formula 1, but he is 17.”

“14 months ago, he drove an F4 car, and there’s so much expectations in Italy,” he added. “And we are also a little bit guilty about talking about him at that stage. I think we should let him do his F2 thing and deliver results and not be too carried away with what could or should be.” Though the Mercedes boss affirmed that Antonelli is “going to be in Formula 1 one day”, he indefinitely delayed the decision with his conclusive 4-worded short remark: “Let’s not rush it.”

This statement reveals that Mercedes’ 2025 seat conundrum remains open. Along with having nobody to replace a 7-time champion, Wolff is also facing down the barrel of a technical personnel problem.

Toto Wolff downplays losing nearly 20 engineers to Red Bull

Adrian Newey’s exit opened a can of worms for Red Bull. McLaren CEO Zak Brown claimed that he received an ‘unusually high number’ of RB employees’ CVs. Toto Wolff supported Brown’s claim, saying Mercedes is also witnessing Red Bull CVs coming in. To put an end to this, RB Boss Christian Horner said they poached 220 Mercedes employees for their powertrains.

Recently, Wolff hit back at Horner’s claim, saying, “Red Bull has taken 19 engineers from Mercedes, which is a normal average in terms of personnel fluctuation from one team to the others. We have to make sure that those who are at Mercedes prefer to stay there rather than go elsewhere and I wouldn’t change anything in terms of the organization of the engine department.”

Mercedes’ current struggles know no bounds. Any human resources lost to the reigning champions will not help in challenging them for the championship. As for Antonelli, his Williams drive before a Mercedes promotion is already under threat, with Valtteri Bottas joining the race. Do you think the 17-year-old prodigy can win this battle?