Mercedes Reportedly Prepared To Offer 2-Year Deal To New Driver

According to recent reports, Mercedes would ideally like to offer their new driver a two-year deal that would take him until the end of season 2026.

Mercedes thought they had both of their drivers sorted until the end of the 2025 season. However, Lewis Hamilton surprised the team with his recent announcement that he would leave after 2024 to join Ferrari.

It is understood that the 39-year-old signed a 1+1 year deal with Mercedes with a clause that would allow him to leave after the 2024 season.

So, it was something Mercedes could count on. Nevertheless, this shocking move surprised the German team, and now Toto Wolff has to look for a potential replacement.

There are many great drivers on the market right now, but finding a replacement for the seven-time World Champion is not easy. As Romain Grosjean hinted, Silver Arrows has a superstar rising through their junior ranks that could play an essential role in how everything develops.

Andrea "Kimi" Antonelli is Mercedes's next big promise. He is only 17 years old, but he has shown such potential that Mercedes decided to make him skip F3 and debut in F2 this year.

He definitely has a potential seat at Mercedes in his cards, but in 2025, he will still be too young and inexperienced to jump into Mercedes.

Wolff might ideally want to send him into Williams (if he scores a great result in F2) and let him gain more experience and adjust to F1 before moving him up to Mercedes.

According to Lawrence Barretto, Mercedes is, in the meantime, prepared to offer a two-year deal to a driver who would come to the team as a replacement for Hamilton.

Two years is not exactly a long-term contract, so it remains a question whether drivers like Carlos Sainz or Alex Albon would be interested in such a deal.

However, the shorter the potential contract, the better for Fernando Alonso, whose name started popping up more and more after Hamilton's departure was announced. Who would you like to see alongside George Russell in Mercedes starting from season 2025 onwards?