Mercedes confirms Antonelli for Monza FP1, rules out Williams test

Team Director Brackley, Toto Wolfofficially confirmed that Andrea Kimi Antonelli will make his Formula 1 weekend debut for Mercedes at Italian Grand Prix 2024but ruled out a short-term loan to Williams. As first reported by Motorsport.com, the Italian will be in FP1 on FridayHe is expected to replace Lewis Hamilton and partner George Russell.

And after the young racer had clocked up many kilometers on the old cars of the German team, the team leader He said he would give the go-ahead for it to be installed in one of his cars.: “We are going to do FP1 with Kimi (Antonelli) in Monza and it will be a very emotional moment because we have been following him since he was eleven years old, when he was a kid, a karting driver and Mercedes is a boy proud to be in the garage.”

“To see him go out on Friday in first practice at Monza, in front of the tifosi, with an Italian kid in a competitive car, I think it will be something that everyone in Italy can be very proud of and then we’ll go from there,” he noted, although Toto Wolff rules out speeding up preparations for debut as Logan Sargeant’s replacement on the Grove team for the remainder of the year.

Instead, he clarified that Andrea Kimi Antonelli will continue to carry out his testing tasks in parallel with the Formula 2 season.: “Between James Vowles and myself we have discussions and a very transparent relationship and James has been involved in the development of Kimi and the search for Kimi, so I think it’s better for him to continue with the programme as we have it, with testing (of the old cars) and Formula 2 and see how it goes, rather than interrupting our plan and giving him a chance at Williams and that’s the decision we’ve made.

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