Mercedes has refuted suggestions that Kimi Antonelli's recent and upcoming tests are part of a "shootout" process as they evaluate potential successors for Lewis Hamilton for 2025.
The 17-year-old Toto Wolff mentee, Andrea 'Kimi' Antonelli, compared his skills alongside Mick Schumacher and George Russell in a 2022 model, reportedly impressing enough to gain the Mercedes board's approval due to his demonstrated speed.
A representative from Mercedes acknowledged the test occurred but clarified that the surrounding rumors were "unverified" and did not "reflect what happened."
"It's important to understand that each driver completed different programs on different days and in different track and weather conditions," the spokesperson explained.
Encouragingly for Antonelli, he, alongside Schumacher, is scheduled for more test runs in the 2022 Mercedes at Barcelona this week.
"Both Mick and Kimi have done an excellent a job delivering their respective programs, to the complete satisfaction of the team, and we are looking forward to three busy days of running next week too," added the Mercedes spokesperson.
Antonelli is increasingly seen as the front-runner to be Hamilton's successor next year, also earning high praise from the team's engineers and technical head, James Allison.
"I have had the great pleasure of listening to the engineers describe the interaction with him," Allison remarked.
"Just a young, enthusiastic driver, very, very fast, metronomic in his pace. He has not been in an F1 car until recently, but made it look like he'd been in one for ages within a lap or two. He looks like a very promising young driver."
