Wolff slammed for Hamilton REPLACEMENT decision

An ex-Formula 1 star has hit out at Mercedes boss Toto Wolff over his decision to bring in Kimi Antonelli as Lewis Hamilton's replacement next season.

The Italian will take over from the seven-time world champion in 2025, who is set to join rivals Ferrari.

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Emotions have been running high this week in the build-up to Hamilton's final race with the Silver Arrows in Abu Dhabi, where he will hope to end a remarkable 12-year era with the team on a positive note.

It has been a largely forgettable campaign for the 39-year-old, who despite showing glimpses of his elite talent in victories at Silverstone and Spa, has struggled to find any consistency in 2024.

Hamilton will go into this weekend's season finale at Yas Marina seventh in the drivers' standings, 24 points behind team-mate George Russell.

Antonelli in 'a really bad situation'

While the 105-time race winner gets set to embark on a new challenge in what has been a long and illustrious career to date, the man taking his Mercedes seat is just at the beginning of his F1 journey.

Antonelli has demonstrated his quality in F2 this season, with victory in Budapest's feature race the standout moment.

But at just 18 years old, question marks remain over whether he is ready to step into the shoes of one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen so early in his career.

Seven-time grand prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya believes the teenager has been put in a difficult position, and insists a more experienced racer may have been a better option.

Speaking to Vision4Sport, the Columbian said: "Mercedes have put Kimi Antonelli in a really bad situation.

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"The expectations are really high. It's a big gamble. I think Antonelli without the hype would have been a really good choice.

"But the problem is when you put in somebody to replace Lewis, you need to justify it.

"I think he [Wolff] wanted to justify it to all the sponsors and everybody why he's making that decision. You know, 'We could have had Sainz, but we didn't take Sainz because we went for Antonelli'.

"Toto has said 'this kid is the future, it's going to be amazing, he’s so fast in the test, he's done this, he's done that'. All of a sudden, you look at him in F2... it's okay but he hasn't been great."

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