Toto Wolff blames Lewis Hamilton for limited options for his replacement

Lewis Hamilton's abrupt announcement to leave Mercedes has stunned the team principal Toto Wolff and he is now faced with a challenge to replace the driver with a 'limited' set of options

Toto Wolff blames Lewis Hamilton for limited options for his replacement

Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff

Toto Wolff is Mercedes team principal and one of the closest people to Lewis Hamilton but has been taken aback since his announcement to leave the silver arrows for Ferrari. Now Wolff is faced with the challenge of replacing the 7-time champion and preparing a solid driver pairing for the German team for the 2025 season.

Hamilton had joined the Brackley-based squad in 2013 and won 6 championships with the team between 2014-20. He is the most successful driver in the history of F1 statistically, level with Michael Schumacher in terms of world championships. The Briton is an icon of the sport and represents F1 across the world, leaving Mercedes for the Scuderia was a tough decision for him and Wolff faces the challenge to replace him.

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I don't want to be hasty [to replace Lewis Hamilton], I guess there were some contracts signed a few weeks ago that we could have looked at. It would have been interesting, but the timing penalized us a bit.
Toto Wolff on replacing Lewis Hamilton, via FormulaPassion.it

The Austrian always had trust in Hamilton and thought that he would “end his legacy here” at Mercedes, but is now feeling that he is “penalised” due to Hamilton’s late call to leave the team. Wolff is in a dilemma to fill the second seat with which driver, he has a lot of options on the table but he has yet to decide on who is the most suitable driver.

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What are the options for Toto Wolff to consider?

With the loss of a seven-time champion, one can only imagine how Wolff would be able to find a replacement for Hamilton. It is not an easy task even for the Austrian entrepreneur and Mercedes team boss.

Fernando Alonso (L) and Carlos Sainz (R)
Fernando Alonso (L) and Carlos Sainz (R) (via Imago)

Carlos Sainz seems like an obvious substitute for the Briton as he is replacing the same driver in the Italian outfit. However, more options like Fernando Alonso who is performing extremely well in his 40s is also an option, but would wait to see how the AMR20 performs.

Young drivers like Mick Schumacher, and Kimi Antonelli could also be on Wolff’s list, but giving a seat to any of them could be considered as a bold move. Time will tell who will be the second driver at Mercedes pairing up with George Russell to form the 2025 driver lineup for Mercedes.

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