Toto Wolff has confirmed that Kimi Antonelli will make his FP1 debut with the German team at this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

The Italian, who is currently 7th in the F2 standings following a Sprint win at Silverstone and Feature race victory in Hungary, is being seriously considered for the second seat alongside George Russell next year.

"We're going to do FP1 with Kimi in Monza, which is going to be a really emotional moment," said Wolff at Zandvoort on Sunday. "Because we followed him since he was 11 and a baby, go-kart driver, and a Mercedes kid proud to be in the garage.

"To see him drive out on Friday in FP1 in Monza, in front of the tifosi, having an Italian kid in a competitive car, I think that will be something that everybody in Italy can be very proud of. And then we take it from there."

Up until now Wolff has played down Antonelli and the second seat insisting that he doesn't want to rush the Italian into F1, though a failure to set the F2 series alight hasn't helped.

Speaking at the start of the Zandvoort weekend however, the Austrian dropped a clear hint that the youngster is being seriously considered.

"Soon, we will confirm who is in the second seat," he told reporters after revealing secret summer talks with Max Verstappen's management about a possible move in 2026. "And what I also said is that the two drivers that are in the car have our full support, 100%.

"Therefore I'm entering the season in 2025 with two drivers that we will be giving all the opportunity to perform. That's why I don't want to talk about the 2026 driver line-up at that stage because I want to make it work with George and (hypothetically) Kimi."

However, amidst growing speculation over Logan Sargeant's future, Wolff dismissed claims that Antonelli could be loaned to Williams for the remainder of this season.

Between James Vowles and myself, we have super transparent discussions and relationship, and James was part of developing Kimi and finding Kimi," he said. "So, I think what's best for him is to continue the programme as we have designed it, with the testing (of previous cars) and Formula 2, and see how that goes, rather than disrupting our plan and giving him the opportunity in a Williams. That's the decision that we have taken."