Despite the driver market being highly-discussed since the beginning of the 2024 Formula 1 championship and the Silly Season fast approaching, Mercedes has yet to decide who will be George Russell’s teammate in 2025. It is widely known that Lewis Hamilton will leave the team at the end of the championship to join Ferrari alongside Charles Leclerc.
Carlos Sainz is back in the spotlight for Mercedes
Commenting on the various rumors circulating in recent months, Toto Wolff has consistently emphasized Brackley’s primary goal: to regain performance as quickly as possible to once again attract the best drivers and technicians, as they did before the ground-effect regulations came into force.
After a dreadful start to the championship, the W15 has finally turned a corner since Canada, thanks to many small, targeted interventions race by race, with George Russell first and then Lewis Hamilton claiming victories in the last two rounds at Spielberg and Silverstone.
With the performance issue largely resolved, Toto Wolff can now focus on closing the driver market issue, with Kimi Antonelli still in pole position but with Carlos Sainz recently back in the running for a seat after being formally dismissed by Toto himself.
“I would bench Antonelli,” said Christian Danner in an interview with Motorsport-Magazine. “Kimi can also be parked for another year. Toto now has to decide who is really the best for me, and naturally, it’s Carlos Sainz. There’s no need to even talk about it.” – the former racing driver from Germany pointed out.
“Carlos knows that all the options he has, except for the one with Mercedes which is now reopening, would put him in a car that would take him back to the Toro Rosso level. That’s not what he wants. This is certainly why he is intensifying talks with Mercedes. It’s logically tied to the excitement that the car is now, at least in practice, capable of winning again. If I were him, I would definitely do it. His remaining options will vanish. He’ll disappear somewhere, and no one will need him anymore. That’s how it works in Formula 1.” – Christian Danner concluded.
Source: f1ingenerale
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