‘Internal reasons’ behind Mercedes signing Antonelli instead of Sainz

There were “internal reasons” why Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff opted for Kimi Antonelli over Carlos Sainz, believes Sky Deutschland’s Sascha Roos.

Despite re-signing Lewis Hamilton in 2023 to a one-plus-one contract for the next two seasons, Mercedes found themselves short a driver when Hamilton announced even before the first race of the F1 2024 championship that he had exercised an exit clause and would be leaving for Ferrari.

Why did Mercedes choose Kimi Antonelli instead of Carlos Sainz?

Wolff spent seven months considering Hamilton’s replacement as one by one drivers were removed from the reported not-so-short list that Roos thought would see Fernando Alonso, Mick Schumacher or Sebastian Vettel eventually getting the seat.

Alonso ruled himself out of contension when he re-signed with Aston Martin while Vettel had a few talks with Wolff, who stated one could “never discount” the four-time World Champion.

As for Schumacher, the Mercedes reserve driver held out hope until the bitter end, an end that was announced in late August when Wolff confirmed Mercedes’ protege Kimi Antonelli would be George Russell’s 2025 F1 team-mate.

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“None of the three made it, I didn’t expect that,” Roos said in a column for Sky Deutschland. “Alonso probably didn’t get an offer. But none of the other well-known names made it either.

“In the end, of course, nobody could have counted on the young Kimi Antonelli before the season.”

Another driver who missed out on the Mercedes race seat was Carlos Sainz, the driver Hamilton has now officially replaced at Ferrari.

Told that 2024 would his final season in red, Sainz put in a near perfect audition, even winning the Australian Grand Prix 16 days after an operation to remove his appendix.

But while he also spoke with Mercedes about the race seat, no contract was forthcoming and Sainz eventually signed with Williams.

Roos was perplexed by that decision but reckons Wolff had his own reasons.

“If I were Mercedes, I would have chosen and signed Sainz – and pushed Antonelli over to Williams for the time being,” he said. “There are certainly internal reasons why Toto Wolff decided this way.”

Ferrari ‘will regret’ dropping Sainz for Hamilton

Another of Roos’ early 2024 predictions was that Sainz could beat Charles Leclerc in the Drivers’ Champioship. That too didn’t happen with the Spaniard 66 points behind his team-mate.

He, however, believes swapping Sainz for Hamilton is a decision that Ferrari may come to regret.

“It was Sainz’s best season in his career so far, with two race wins,” said Roos. “But Leclerc was even more consistent. It was a good pairing at Ferrari with Sainz and Leclerc.

“I think Ferrari will regret the Hamilton move. It just worked well with Sainz and Leclerc. Sainz is not much worse than Hamilton, if at all.

“Hamilton will need a certain amount of time to get used to the car. And then the train may have already left the station as far as the team championship is concerned.

“The way Sainz and Leclerc drove in the end – and the car will not change much in 2025 – Ferrari will initially be weakened with Hamilton in the first few races. I would be very surprised if Hamilton has Leclerc clearly under control over the course of the season.”

Going on to call Sainz Williams’ “best possible choice”, he doesn’t believe the Spaniard will be racing for the Grove team for very long with Cadillac set to join the grid in 2026.

“I can imagine that he will not stay at Williams for long and may go to Cadillac,” he added. “And you don’t know what else is going to happen at Red Bull will happen.”

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