Toto Wolff: Two sponsors left Mercedes after promoting Kimi Antonelli into F1

At the Mexico Grand Prix, Mercedes reaped the reward for the courage it showed in putting the then 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli in the cockpit from 2025 with his world championship triumph in his just second Formula 1 season.

It was courage that not everyone in the Mercedes sphere shared from the outset, as team principal Toto Wolff now reveals.

"We had two sponsors who left us because of it. They asked me: 'Kimi Antonelli, who is this kid supposed to be?'" Wolff told Sky Sports. "And there were others who have stayed with us to this day, and they are now reaping the rewards."

Even before the start of the 2024 season, superstar Lewis Hamilton had announced that he would leave Mercedes for Ferrari. For months, the media speculated about who could succeed the seven-time world champion. Max Verstappen in particular was regarded as a hot candidate in the summer. Also because Antonelli had been unable to meet the high expectations in Formula 2 in 2024 and only scored his first of two wins that season in the 15th of 28 races.

According to Wolff, the media could have spared themselves their speculation, because in truth everything was very simple: "When Lewis stood at my door that morning, everything was already clear to me. The moment he confirmed that he was going to Ferrari, I knew Kimi would be in the car."

Wolff recalls telling his press chief and current deputy team principal Bradley Lord and technical director James Allison soon afterwards. "I told them: 'Kimi is in the car.' They just said: 'What are you talking about?' But we had the data. We didn't need any more confirmation. Kimi had already confirmed it through his success in Formula 4 and Formula Regional. The rest was crystal clear."

Jerome d'Ambrosio, Driver Development Director, Mercedes-AMG, Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes-AMG, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Wolff does not reveal who the two sponsors were that no longer wanted to be Mercedes partners without superstar Hamilton. But it is known that fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger and sports goods manufacturer Puma left the team at the end of 2024. In their place, with Adidas a new global brand came on board. And with Gillette, a deal was already taking shape that ultimately came to nothing. The brand known for its razors went to Audi instead.

But while many around them doubted whether it really would be a good idea to lift Antonelli straight from Formula 2 into the works Mercedes, for Wolff it seemed "at no point to be a risk. Sometimes I am asked why I take risks. But I only take calculated risks - ones where the worst possible outcome is that our life in the team I am responsible for would still not fundamentally change.

"The team always stood behind this decision. [Mercedes CEO] Ola [Kallenius] always stood behind this decision. There were no doubts whatsoever. The doubts only came from outside. From people who were partners of the team at the time and no longer are today. From other teams, from other drivers who felt they themselves deserved a chance. And from the media.

"It started with people saying: 'You can't be serious about putting an 18-year-old in the car that Lewis Hamilton previously drove. He had a disappointing Formula 2 season. He should do another year in Formula 2 and first prove that he really is good enough.'"

"Then, once we had put him in the car, people said: 'He shouldn't be in a Mercedes. That's far too much pressure for him. Why didn't you try to reach an agreement with Williams and give him, like George, one, two or three years to develop?' And of course those voices became even louder after he had gone nine races in a row without points."

When Antonelli endured one of the bitterest race weekends of his debut season at the drivers' circuit of Spa in the summer of 2025, during which, according to Wolff, there were also "tears", "those who said 'I told you so' suddenly gained more and more momentum. But for us, for me personally, there was never even the slightest doubt.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Toto Wolff, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

"2025 was exactly the season I had expected. It was clear to me that it would be a project over at least two years, with the second year needing to confirm what we had seen in him. And I think today we are sitting here and have received that confirmation. It is incredible. We really have to pinch ourselves, because it feels to us as if it was only yesterday that he was standing in a garage in junior karting as an 11-year-old.

"And then everything happens so quickly. He wins the junior single-seater series, then experiences a difficult year in Formula 2. And even back then, people from the outside began to doubt him. I am just incredibly proud of the team, that everyone continued to believe in him. And he delivered."

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