Wolff closes Mercedes door on Sainz: “We explained it to Carlos”

This has been a reality for weeks. When asked by this newspaper George Russell because of how i saw it Carlos Sainz could be your colleague Mercedes in 2025 and Mercedes’ press officer ended the press conference without letting the Englishman answer, felt it. AND in Monaco, MD announced that Mercedes was far less likely because the decision was more than made: the choice was the young Italian from Andrea Kimi Antonelli is 17 years old, from the junior program of the star team. And so it will be.

Two weeks later, Toto Wolff, head of the Silver Arrows, confirmed this on ‘Sky Germany’, publicly closing Mercedes’ doors to Sainz: “Our intention is to focus on young drivers and we explained this to Carlos Sainz. We only want to focus on Kimi Antonelli because we dedicate our future to young drivers”. Clear and concise. In Monaco, this newspaper has made it clear that ‘Checo’ will renew with Red Bull and Kimi will be Mercedes’ choice. And two weeks later, those two possibilities disappeared for the Spaniard.

The decision shocked the paddock

In the Principality, when MD spoke about the issue to many of those present in the paddock, they did not understand why Carlos Sainz could not drive for Mercedes in 2025.

At 17 years old, Kimi (he will be 18 on August 25), a native of Bologna, is driving in his first year in Formula 2, a category in which he arrived after a surprising leap: without first going through the F3, directly from the European Regional Formula, in one of the cases closest to the giant steps Max Verstappen took in his day to reach F1.

Wolff asked a few weeks ago that the boy be left alone and that no pressure be put on him. But if you quickly upload it to F1 beside Russell That’s exactly what it would cause: maximum pressure on a pilot who shouldn’t be in danger of burning.

Wolff had the option of giving him a seat at Williams so he could gain experience as he did himself. George Russellthat despite showing more hands than the pilot then of Mercedes Valtteri Bottas, who spent up to three years in the Grove team, is asking for that promotion with good performances. Without walking further, Verstappenwhen he moved up to F1, he first did so at Toro Rosso, a subsidiary of red bull. THOUGH LeclercAfter a crush on F2, he drove for the first time in a year Alfa Romeo.

Few realize that Kimi was not first promoted to Williams (a Mercedes engine client) to gain experience without the pressure of driving for the Silver Arrows before making the jump. And at the same time, that they did not choose a pilot of the stature of Sainz. Few drivers of his quality have been free in recent years and Mercedes did not want to take advantage of this to sit him next to Russell while waiting for Kimi to grow up.

Perhaps the explanation is that Toto Wolff is the young driver’s manager.the same explanation that can understand why Bottas stayed at Mercedes for so long with Hamilton. Conflict of interest? Nope. Again, politics weigh more than sports. This is F1.

Meanwhile, Mercedes continues to stuff young Antonelli with kilometers and more kilometers of testing, the latest of which was conducted this week at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. In addition, he drove F2 with ground effect which allowed him to learn a lot before he jumped into F1. But for now, he still hasn’t crushed the silver class like Russell or Leclerc did. Many believe that there is too much running

In that sense, Toto also defined how much talk about Kimi’s performance in an F1: “Kimi and Mick Schumacher followed the programs that were offered to them and achieved exactly the results we expected. Kimi is said to be faster than George (Russell) and Mick, but that is complete nonsense. The three of them are on different programs , ” All three of them are very fast, but George is faster than the others and that’s the way.”

Sainz, what now?

As MD already pointed out in Monaco, Carlos Sainz’s options remain open. Logically, for sporting and project reasons, the best possibilities are Audis or Williams. But the rest is not ruled either, like Alpine, or even RB sound.

Audi or Williams, which is the best option?

The head of Sauber (which will become Audi in 2025) has already pointed out to the MD in Imola how much they like Sainz, to whom they are giving his time to decide. Audi is asking for an “effort” from him because it knows that in 2025 he will drive a Sauber at the back of the grid, but at the same time, he said that more than an effort it was an “opportunity to lead a team that wants . to be a winner.” a historic like Audi. This is a long-term project and no one can assure Sainz that Audi will be competitive in two, three, four or five years. And at 29 years old (30 in September), from the beginning Carlos prioritizes sports in the short term.

On the other side is the option of Williams, which may be appealing for three reasons. The first, because in 2025 it will be more competitive than Sauber, although far from the podiums. The second, due to an engine change in 2026, Williams will have an engine Mercedes which is said to be very competitive.

If Mercedes starts to dominate in 2026 because of its engine, Williams could fight for interesting things with that power unitperhaps the podiums, and Carlos could continue to shine in the search for other seats in winning teams that remain free, such as a possible return to Ferrari if Hamilton does not continue in 2027, or perhaps a signing for Red Bull if ‘Checo’ or Max left then.

The ball is in the court of Sainz, who feels lucky to be able to decide his future, once again, even though his main choices at the beginning of the year, Red Bull and Mercedes, have disappeared for reasons that have nothing to do with good sporting performance of Carlos, who feels that he is in the best moment of his career.