Toto Wolff stated he that he will take as much time as possible before making the final decision about the driver for the second seat in his team in 2025.
There has been a lot of talk
about Max Verstappen's possible move to Mercedes in recent weeks. However, there that isn't probably very likely as even Toto Wolff admitted he can't offer the Dutchman the best car at the moment.
Nevertheless, the team principal of
Mercedes has quite a few options to choose from. There is still
Carlos Sainz, who is rumored to have begin negotiations with the 52-yea-old in Jeddah.
There is also
Fernando Alonso, and then there is also Andrea Kimi Antonelli who was
at one point suggested as Wolff's number one option. As quoted by F1, the Austrian recently admitted he probably talked too much about the 17-year-old prodigy.
"I’m probably guilty in having talked too much about Kimi, because he’s just 17, he jumped F3, he’s going into F2."
"He needs to learn, he needs to be more, let’s say, in the shadows to be able to develop, understand what to do and whether he’s going to be in Formula 1 if everything goes to plan, but I don’t know if that is next year or whether it’s with us or someone else."
Regardless, Wolff clarified that he isn't about to make the final decision about the second driver anytime soon. He wants to take as much time as possible.
Lewis Hamilton claimed he had to make the decision about the contract with Ferrari in a rush, but Wolff says he wants to "do the opposite."
"Well, the decision of Lewis to go to Ferrari was a pretty quick one, so I want to do the opposite – I want to wait and see how the season pans out, how the driver market develops, and then take a decision later in the season."