Mercedes could re-sign race-winning driver and send Kimi Antonelli to Williams

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Mercedes could re-hire one driver as a stop-gap before Kimi Antonelli joins the team, journalist Joe Saward says.

The Silver Arrows have a decision to make on who will replace seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton when he joins Ferrari.

And Saward, writing on his personal website, believes they could initially sign a short-term candidate.

Mercedes have known since the winter that Hamilton would be jumping ship to the Scuderia for 2025.

Academy driver Antonelli is a candidate for the drive even though he’s only 17 and has just started out in Formula 2.

Team principal Toto Wolff believes he’s a talent of the calibre of world champion Max Verstappen and race-winner Charles Leclerc.

Antonelli won the Formula Regional Championships in European and the Middle East last year.

The Prema youngster, who’s racing alongside Oliver Bearman, currently sits ninth in the F2 standings with 12 points.

Last time out in Australia, he produced season-best results of second in qualifying and fourth in the Feature Race.

Esteban Ocon could be Kimi Antonelli stop-gap for Mercedes

While Antonelli has ‘superstar’ potential and could jump straight from F2 to a front-running car, Mercedes may decide that such a rapid ascent is ‘unwise’.

Instead, they could send him to Williams, just like they did with George Russell before he graduated to the Brackley outfit in 2022.

It’s already emerged that Antonelli is a contender to replace Logan Sargeant at the Grove outfit next year.

Team principal James Vowles has no doubt that the Italian is destined for the top tier of motorsport.

According to Saward, such an arrangement could see Mercedes re-sign Esteban Ocon from Alpine on a single-year deal with the option of a second.

He wrote: “One can speculate, however, that Antonelli has the makings of a superstar (if it doesn’t all go to his head) and that Mercedes might see value in the idea of moving him up the ladder VERY quickly.

“It needs to replace Hamilton but going straight into a Mercedes, with all the pressures that go with a top team, might be unwise, although it might be good to get him into a Williams as soon as he turns 18.

“That would give him a year and a half to get up to speed in F1 before Mercedes would need him in 2026.

“There would need to be someone who would take a one-plus-one deal with Mercedes in 2025 and as George Russell’s contract is up at the end of that year, it could (in theory) become a permanent gig in 2026, if Lewis’s replacement outperformed George.

“My money would be on Esteban Ocon, who has long had Mercedes links and is clearly in the wrong place at Alpine.”

Will Esteban Ocon leave Alpine?

Mercedes signed Ocon to their academy back in 2015, when he won the GP3 title at ART.

In the second half of the following season, he got his first shot in F1 with the Manor Racing team.

Still on the books of Mercedes, he then spent two years with Force India/Racing Point before losing his seat following investment from Lawrence Stroll, the father of Lance Stroll.

He spent 2019 on the sidelines as Wolff’s reserve driver, but Renault (later Alpine) offered him a chance to return in 2020.

Wolff decided to stick with Valtteri Bottas rather than promote Ocon, and released him to join the French manufacturer.

While Ocon became a Grand Prix winner with Alpine in 2021 when he triumphed in Hungary, he’s currently having a miserable time of things.

They sit bottom of the constructors’ standings after three point-less races, with Ocon down in 18th in the drivers’.

The 27-year-old, who says it’s the ‘worst feeling’ when you perform well but aren’t in a car fast enough for the top 10, is out of contract at the end of the year.

Sky Sports F1’s David Croft has already speculated that he and teammate Pierre Gasly may seek a way out.