04/05/2024
NEWS STORY
On the day that Logan Sargeant finally out-qualifies Alex Albon, it is claimed that Williams is looking to replace the American with Kimi Antonelli. Not so, say James Vowles and Toto Wolff.
The claim follows reports that the FIA has received a request for dispensation - believed to have come from Williams - for the youngster to be granted a superlicence before his 18th birthday.
The Italian doesn't turn 18 until 25 August - the day of the Dutch Grand Prix - however, speaking to reporters in Miami, Williams boss, James Vowles played down the talk.
"We have far bigger problems to solve than drivers at the moment," he said. "Alex has done championship-level drives and at the moment he's not scoring points and fundamentally we have it on us to improve our car going forward. That's my primary concern more than anything else and what we do with drivers going into '25, '26.
All of us here are just sorting out where we're going to be for next year fundamentally," he added. "And of that, there are options on the table, but it is far too early to tell.
"In the sense of Kimi, you have to remember it's just 20 months ago he was in a Formula 4 car. That's a large, large step up into a Formula 1 car in such a short space of time."
Asked if he had been following the Italian's progress in his (F1) tests for Mercedes at the Red Bull Ring and Imola, Vowles 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 has actually spoken to 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," he added. "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."
Of course, Antonelli is already being linked with Mercedes, the youngster one of several names being considered as Lewis Hamilton's replacement. However, Toto Wolff insists that he wants things to play out naturally, and though aware that he let Max Verstappen slip through his fingers, insists that he has no intention of changing his original plans for the Italian.
"The dispensation was something that wasn't brought up by us and we have certainly stated from the beginning that that was not something we have pursued," he told Motorsport.com. "I don't know where this belief comes from that Mercedes was keen on pushing that forward.
"Kimi needs to concentrate on his F2 campaign and he knows that," he added. "Everything else is just rumours, which continue to spin around and that are factually incorrect. He's an F2 driver for Prema, that is what he's doing, and this is what we're all concentrating on.
"Just 15 months ago, he was in an F4 car," he continued. "We have great belief in Kimi, his abilities and also his future. But there is a trajectory which we need to follow with diligence, rather than trying to dream about jumping from series to series in a way that is certainly not beneficial for him.
"I think a champion is not going to be distracted by any of this. But certainly, at least it distracts me because everybody's asking me: 'What about Kimi and driving in Imola?' This is not going to happen. This is not something that Mercedes wants. These rumours have gotten their own spin. Let's do Formula 2. We as a team have lots of other issues to resolve."
Referring to Antonelli's F1 test debut, Wolff said: "It's completely on the trajectory that we expected. There are easier days, there are harder days. The testing goes very well and we are just approaching it calm and collected.
"That is what we have planned before the season, a solid F2 campaign and testing for Mercedes, and we will continue to just do this. Everything else is just a distraction for all of us.
"We are super happy with George. He's going to continue to be a driver in this team. And everything else we see panning out on the driver market. It's not going to happen in the next few weeks or a couple of months."
It's understood that Mercedes is to run Antonelli and Mick Schumacher in a test at Silverstone as early next week, but Wolff still insistent that he doesn't want to rush the Italian youngster into F1.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Miami here.