Official Andrea Kimi Antonelli plan disclosed as Williams loan rumours hot up

With rumours of an Andrea Kimi Antonelli mid-season Williams move gathering fresh momentum, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has confirmed that the teenager will debut with Mercedes in FP1 at the Italian Grand Prix.

Antonelli, 18, is currently navigating his first Formula 2 campaign, picking up two race wins so far, as he bids to secure a Mercedes F1 2025 seat with Lewis Hamilton heading for Ferrari. But could he join the grid before then with Williams?

Andrea Kimi Antonelli to make F1 debut with Mercedes at Monza

Additional reporting by Sam Cooper

The decision has already been made by Williams to replace Logan Sargeant with Carlos Sainz for F1 2025, but with the American racer suffering a further major shunt in the final practice at the Dutch Grand Prix, talk of him being replaced before the F1 2024 campaign ends received a fresh shot of momentum.

Antonelli has seen his name come up as the driver who could replace Sargeant this season, but Wolff has revealed a plan which is concrete, that being for Antonelli to make his F1 debut with Mercedes in the opening practice session at the upcoming Italian Grand Prix, Antonelli’s home race.

“We’re going to do FP1 with Kimi at Monza,” Wolff confirmed to media including PlanetF1.com at Zandvoort.

“Which is going to be a really emotional moment, because we followed him since he was 11 and a baby go-kart driver with a Mercedes kit, proud to be in the garage, to seeing him drive out on Friday in FP1 in Monza, in front of the tifosi.

“Having an Italian kid in a competitive car, I think that will be something that everybody in Italy can be very proud of.”

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Wolff also believes that Hamilton will have his fair share of fans cheering him on at Monza considering his upcoming Ferrari association.

Asked if Hamilton will have more fans at Monza this time around, Wolff replied: “Yeah, I think there will be lots of Lewis fans that will be cheering for him and there will be lots of Kimi fans for a new driver.”

Mercedes had built up serious momentum going into the summer break with three wins from four races, but the team found themselves losing out to McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull at Zandvoort, George Russell crossing the line P7 and Lewis Hamilton P8.

Wolff is hopeful that the Dutch GP will prove merely a blip and Mercedes can return to form at Monza.

Asked for his Monza expectations, considering Mercedes won at the comparably high-speed Silverstone and Spa tracks, Wolff replied: “I would very much hope that we can come back to the performances that we’ve shown thus far.

“But it’s not only that it’s a high-speed track versus what we had here, because our car was competitive for practically all of the last few races. It’s just here, it was completely opposite.

“So we’ve just got to get it right and then we can play with the music again.”

Hamilton holds the joint-record with Michael Schumacher for most Monza victories with five, four of those claimed with Mercedes, though 2018 was his and Mercedes’ most recent victory at the iconic circuit.

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