Toto Wolff has planned his Mercedes line-up well (Image: Getty)
Former F1 star Juan Pablo Montoya believes that see as their ‘Plan B’ should the experiment not work out. The Finnish driver returned to the Silver Arrows as a reserve driver after he was dropped by Sauber.
Bottas enjoyed a strong 2024 campaign, outperforming team-mate on a near-weekly basis. However, when selecting his driver line-up for 2025 and beyond, Mattia Binotto opted for youth, bringing in Formula Two champion Gabriel Bortoleto to partner .
This left Bottas without a seat on the grid, but former team came swooping in with a new role to keep him ticking over in the paddock. The 35-year-old spent five seasons with the Silver Arrows between 2017 and 2021, scoring 10 Grand Prix victories.
“We have Kimi Antonelli on the other side of the coin, in the spotlight of one of the best teams, with a team-mate who is doing a great job,” Montoya told CasasDeApuestats.bet. “He is being sold as the next .
“If he doesn’t perform well, it will be difficult. In my opinion, with Bottas, would be protecting themselves. He is the safety net to have someone in case it doesn’t work out with Antonelli, and he knows that.”
Fortunately for Antonelli, he will have time to prove his worth. Team principal has no illusions about the adaptation time the Italian will need to get up to scratch in F1 machinery as just two years ago, the 18-year-old was racing Formula Regional cars.
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Valtteri Bottas will be ready to replace Kimi Antonelli (Image: Getty)
However, Antonelli has the full support of his crew and enjoyed an aggressive testing programme using up ’ TPC (testing of previous cars) allocation in 2024. According to new team-mate , the Italian should not be underestimated.
“I think I’ve always believed that you gain a lot over time with experience, in terms of how to deal with the race weekend, the tyres, the team, but I don’t believe I’m any faster today on raw pace than I was when I was 17 years old,” he explained,
“And I think you’ve either got the speed or you don’t have the speed, and Kimi absolutely has the speed. He’s proven that in all of his categories. There will be mistakes on the way, as there were for all of us.
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“I think every single driver on the grid in Formula One in their first couple of seasons made very visual mistakes, and that’s going to be obviously highlighted more for any driver who’s at the front of the field.
“But Kimi’s exceptionally fast and I’ve got no doubt he’s going to be really keeping me on my toes next year, and I’m really looking forward to a new challenge. Three years working with Lewis [Hamilton] has been exceptional, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do together from next year onwards.”