{"id":486499,"date":"2024-08-31T03:18:17","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T07:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=486499"},"modified":"2024-08-31T03:18:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T07:18:17","slug":"mercedes-confirms-kimi-antonelli-as-hamiltons-successor-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/mercedes-confirms-kimi-antonelli-as-hamiltons-successor-for-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes confirms Kimi Antonelli as Hamilton\u2019s successor for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mercedes has officially announced that young Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli will replace Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1 starting in the 2025 season. Antonelli, who has been widely tipped for the seat alongside George Russell, will step up to the pinnacle of motorsport after a season of learning and development in Formula 2.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Our 2025 F1 driver line-up confirmed \u2705<\/p>\n<p>Kimi Antonelli will race alongside George Russell next season \ud83d\udc4a<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MercedesAMGF1\/status\/1829776254020558903?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Despite rumors of Mercedes considering other drivers, including Max Verstappen, the team has put its faith in the 20-year-old Antonelli. Although his season in Formula 2 had its challenges, the German manufacturer has been impressed by his growth and his performance in F1 testing.<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli made his F1 debut on Friday when he took George Russell&#8217;s seat in first practice, but flew out into the barriers at the last corner and his session was just 10 minutes long.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">You\u2019ll bounce back from this Kimi \ud83d\udc4a<\/p>\n<p>The crew are working hard to have George\u2019s car ready for FP2 \ud83d\udee0\ufe0f\ud83e\uddf0\ud83d\udcaa <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/C5FZ9pUEQh\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/C5FZ9pUEQh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MercedesAMGF1\/status\/1829526747567841603?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff expressed confidence in the new line-up, stating, \u201cOur 2025 driver line-up combines experience, talent, youth, and out-and-out raw speed. We are excited about what George and Kimi bring to the team both as individual drivers and as a partnership. This new line-up is perfect to open the next chapter in our story, and it reflects our belief in nurturing home-grown talent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli, who has been part of the Mercedes junior driver program since 2019, expressed his excitement about the promotion. \u201cReaching F1 is a dream I\u2019ve had since I was a small boy,\u201d said Antonelli. \u201cI want to thank the team for their support and the faith they\u2019ve shown in me. I\u2019m still learning, but I feel ready for this opportunity and am focused on delivering the best results for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli\u2019s rise to F1 has been marked by success throughout his junior career, including multiple karting and single-seater titles. His promotion to Mercedes\u2019 top team is a testament to his potential and the strength of Mercedes\u2019 junior program, as the team looks to shape its future with a blend of youthful talent and proven speed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mercedes has officially announced that young Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli will replace Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1 starting in the 2025 season. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":486500,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[23143,16926],"news_category":[16921],"gn_keywords":[23144,17856],"acf":{"announce":"The young talent made his F1 debut on Friday's first practice at Monza","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/486499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/486499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486501,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/486499\/revisions\/486501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486499"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=486499"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=486499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}