George Russell, Williams, Albert Park, 2019

Mercedes’ head of driver development has explained why it chose to promote Andrea Kimi Antonelli as its first-ever rookie driver last year.

The team placed its previous junior driver, George Russell, at rivals Williams for three years before promoting him to the factory squad. But the team’s talent-spotter Gwen Lagrue said this did not prepare Russell fully for his move to Mercedes in 2022.

Antonelli was 18 years old when he made his debut for Mercedes, three years younger than Russell was when he arrived in F1 with Williams in 2019. Lagrue said the circumstances of last season also persuaded Mercedes to appoint Antonelli as its first rookie driver of the modern era.

“Of course, for an 18-year-old kid becoming a Mercedes F1 driver, the pressure was probably higher,” he told the BBC. “But we also put him in knowing that we were not probably going to fight for the title [in 2025].

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, George Russell, Mercedes, 2025
Antonelli joined Russell at Mercedes last year

“It was maybe the best opportunity for us to take a risk by promoting Kimi straight away into our car and not putting him in a smaller team. We had also previously this experience with George, because we had him for three years at Williams, and when he moved to Mercedes it still took us half a season to get him up to speed.

“So we knew that if we didn’t take the opportunity to promote Kimi in ’25, then we wouldn’t have him [ready] ’til maybe ’27, ’28. We took this risk with the clear goal to make him ready for the fight, hopefully in ’25 but more surely in ’26.”

Antonelli’s performance in karting immediately impressed Lagrue, who called Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and told him to sign the youngster.

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“I wouldn’t say I discovered him, but we have a strong network in go-karts,” said Lagrue. “People rang me and told me that ‘Gwen, there is a kid showing something different, you should come and see’. So I went [to] a couple of races and indeed he was someone apart, a kid different [to] others and that was back in 2017, he was 11 years old at that time.”

“He was already very mature,” Lagrue explained. “He had this natural leadership you don’t see very often. He was not shy at all, he was very enthusiastic.

“Also, for me, what was incredible, was his passion for motorsport and his passion for racing. The way he was defending, the way he was preparing a move, his approach, his attitude, et cetera. I mean, he was ticking already so many boxes for such a young kid that I was immediately convinced he was probably the next big thing.

“I haven’t been as impressed by a young driver since Max Verstappen, I would say.”

Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Hamilton was faster; Positive value: Russell was faster. More data here

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