Toto Wolff has moved to dismiss any suggestion that Mercedes could drop Kimi Antonelli after his rough run of results in this debut Formula 1 season. The teenager arrived on the grid with a bang earlier this year but his strong initial form tailed off when the European portion of the campaign began in May.
Antonelli impressed last time out at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, finishing fourth to help push Mercedes back up to second place in the constructors’ standings. But before that Baku race he had scored just three points across six race weekends and was scoreless in seven of the nine races held in Europe overall.
Mercedes see Antonelli as a future superstar and at no point this season has his F1 future been under threat. But there has been some talk that the Silver Arrows might look to take the teenager out of the firing line and place him with one of their customer teams for the 2026 season, so he can find his feet before returning to the main squad the following year.
Williams has been suggested as an obvious destination, given the team has been used to blood Mercedes juniors before – most notably George Russell. There was some talk that Carlos Sainz, who beat Antonelli to the podium in Baku, could swap places with the young Italian if a deal could be struck between the two teams.
But Mercedes chief Wolff has ruled out the prospect of that happening with an emphatic response to the suggestion that his young driver could effectively be sent out on loan to either Williams or Alpine, who are on the look out for a partner for Pierre Gasly in 2026. The Austrian said: “The Alpine and Williams speculations are completely nonsense. He will stay here in 2026, 100 percent.”
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Antonelli has yet to actually put pen to paper on a new contract for next season, though that is expected to be a simple formality. That is also the case for Russell, though it seems the Brit has purposely slowed renewal talks with Mercedes after the team had initially been the ones to delay things amid their chase of Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman made it clear before the summer break that he planned to stick with Red Bull for 2026 and that seemed to lead to Mercedes setting their contract renewal plans in motion again. But Russell chose to spend his summer break on holiday rather than locked in negotiations with Wolff, while there has also been little obvious movement since the racing returned.
Russell again underlined his value to the team with an excellent performance last time out at the Azerbaijan GP. Despite suffering from a respiratory infection which almost forced him to sit the Baku weekend out, he finished the race second behind only winner Verstappen. Russell is fourth in the drivers’ championship with 212 points, 134 more than seventh-placed Antonelli has managed so far in his debut F1 campaign.
