“Focus on young drivers,” Toto Wolff publicly rules Carlos Sainz out of running for the coveted 2025 Mercedes seat

The 2025 Carlos Sainz – Mercedes saga has been finally put to bed by Toto Wolff. During the ongoing Canadian Grand Prix weekend, Wolff has admitted that the Brackley-based team is only focusing on young drivers.

Carlos Sainz has been linked with Mercedes ever since Lewis Hamilton dropped the Ferrari 2025 nuke on the F1 paddock. The former was tipped by many as the favorite to replace Hamilton but after eight rounds in the ongoing season, Wolff and co. have made up their mind to specifically focus on young prodigy, Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

The Mercedes boss has even admitted that the same has been communicated to Sainz as well.

We just want to focus on Kimi, this is our future, the young drivers. We want to focus on this, on young drivers. This is what we told Carlos.

Toto Wolff said in an interview with Sky Deutschland

The 17-year-old Prema F2 driver is a Mercedes junior who alongside Sainz, has been in the headlines regarding a 2025 seat with the German team. Moreover, he has participated in quite a few private tests with the team during the ongoing campaign.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli performing at ‘expected’ levels during F1 tests

While Carlos Sainz is no longer a prospect for Mercedes for the 2025 seat, Antonelli has been performing as per expectations during the private tests. He recently participated in a three-way test alongside Mick Schumacher and George Russell.

However, the agendas during the running of all three were very different.

Both (Kimi and Mick) completed the program we gave them, and the performances were exactly what we expected. Some claims that Kimi was faster than George and much faster than Mick are absolutely nonsense. All three led with different agendas.

Toto Wolff said in the same interview

Looking at everything that has been discussed, it is quite clear that Antonelli is in a prime position to secure the coveted 2025 Mercedes seat alongside Russell. However, the Italian still needs to perform in F2 to make sure he gets into the pinnacle of motorsport by the start of the 2025 F1 season. Several eyes will be glued on Antonelli’s F2 exploits going forward.

In case you missed it:

• “Why’s he still in F1?” Ex-F1 driver brutally rips into Daniel Ricciardo for lackluster performances in last ‘4-5 years’
• “It’s not ideal,” Max Verstappen extremely disappointed after losing on major chunk of FP2 because of mechanical issue

Stay Updated!

Join our newsletter to receive exclusive updates and curated insights directly to your inbox.

Subscribe NOW