Mercedes Is Reportedly Decided On Who Their 2025 Driver Will Be After Silverstone Test

Italian media reported that Mercedes's young talent, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, impressed the team during the Silverstone test so much that they were ready to offer him a seat.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli is currently an F2 driver racing for Prema. Last year, he won the Formula Regional European Championship and Formula Regional Middle East Championship, and going into 2024, Antonelli skipped F3 to jump right into F2.

His current results in F2 are not as impressive as his team seems to be struggling a bit more with the car's performance this season, but Antonelli is undergoing intense preparation for an F1 seat with Mercedes at the same time, taking part in multiple F1 testing sessions.

The latest session took place at Silverstone Circuit in Mercedes's 2022 car. Initially, it was suggested that only Antonelli and Mick Schumacher (Mercedes's reserve driver) would participate in this test.

However, Italian Corriere Dello Sport reports that George Russell also took part in this test. The Italian newspaper reports that Antonelli was faster than Schumacher (a driver with two years of experience in F1).

But what is even more interesting is that Corriere Dello Sport suggests the 17-year-old also beat Mercedes's current F1 driver in both qualifying and long runs.

It is important to emphasize that each driver's tire compounds, fuel loads, engine modes, and track conditions are unknown. This means that even if Antonelli's time was faster than Russell's, he didn't have to be quicker.

Nevertheless, the Italian newspaper suggests the test results were convincing enough for Mercedes. The suggestion now is that the German team is ready to give their free 2025 seat to the youngster.

This closes the option for Carlos Sainz, who will now have to decide between Red Bull (which apparently isn't really interested), Audi, and Williams (which emerged as a new contender for the 29-year-old's services.)