Mercedes set to evaluate Kimi Antonelli vs Mick Schumacher as Imola F1 debut takes a back seat - Reports

Mercedes junior driver Kimi Antonelli will be evaluated against Mick Schumacher at the Silverstone test in May in the W13. According to Auto Motor und Sport, Toto Wolff doesn’t want the 17-year-old to debut as early as Imola.

According to a lot of speculation in Miami, there has been a request to apply for a super license on behalf of the Mercedes reserve driver. The request was supposed to be from Williams, who wanted to replace Logan Sargeant with Antonelli as early as Imola. FIA confirmed receiving the request to Sportskeeda but stated that such a thing needed a lengthy procedure for approval.

AMuS has now reported that the Mercedes chief has refuted the idea of replacing Sargeant with Antonelli as early as Imola. But the German publication suggested that maybe the Silver Arrows squad are waiting to evaluate the F2 driver against their current third driver and reserve Schumacher in Silverstone, where the duo will share their testing duties behind the wheel of a W13.

This still doesn’t rule out the possibility of the F2 driver making a debut before his 18th birthday in August.

Wolff said:

"We don't want to burn Kimi. A Formula 1 deployment in Imola would come too early."

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Williams team principal James Vowles rules out replacing Logan Sargeant with Mercedes junior driver

James Vowles ruled out Kimi Antonelli replacing Logan Sargeant by Imola GP and claimed he was not aware of any such plans made by Mercedes. The Williams team principal felt that tests in old cars are not necessarily the best reference point for performance.

He stated that there were no plans to replace Logan Sargeant and claimed to have no idea about the testing plans of the Silver Arrows.

When asked about the speculation surrounding Antonelli replacing Sargeant in the Williams during a media interaction, the former Mercedes Chief Strategist said:

“My information source is journalism for that. So I don't have any direct communication with Mercedes on how he's doing in the tests. I just understand that he has been testing in Imola and I think he also did Austria at the same time. So for that one, everything I read is what you read, which as far as I can tell, it's good. But you can't really compare in that situation. It's older cars. I'm not sure if it's a ‘21 or a ‘22 car. And there's nothing really to reference it to.”

Asked if he had any conversation with Mercedes about Antonelli, Vowles said:

“Let's put it this way. I haven't spoken to Kimi since Abu Dhabi last year. Hopefully that puts it in context. I know nothing about what's going on at Mercedes’ tests right now. We are looking, as everyone else is, for where we want to be on driver line-up for next year and we have our own young driver programme. In the case of Kimi, I can't really adjudicate on the level he's at. In case of him coming into the car this year, I've always said from the beginning, it's a meritocracy. Logan has to earn his seat. And at the moment, he has some tough targets where he has to get much closer to Alex. But there is nothing on the radar at the moment for replacing him.”

Currently, Albon has managed to outperform Sargeant in most of the weekends, but an early swap from the Williams seems unlikely at the moment.Particularly the patience they’ve shown in 2023 with the American driver till he scored his first points.

On the other hand, Mercedes' plans for Antonelli and the 2025 driver pairing remain unclear. But if they were to get a reference point from the testing and an early debut for the 17-year-old, they might be able to take a call on their 2025 options earlier.