Toto Wolff is no longer hiding that his teenage protege, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, will be George Russell’s teammate at Mercedes next year.
It emerged over the summer break that the Mercedes team boss had finally given up on the prospect of luring Max Verstappen away from Red Bull - at least for 2025.
"That certainly does not close the door for a future transfer," Wolff told Kronen Zeitung newspaper at Zandvoort.
"All year long I thought there was a window or an opportunity. It wasn’t zero," he added. "Maybe it was 10 to 1, or 9 to 1. Still, I didn’t want to give up, but then over the summer we came to the agreement that we shouldn’t wait for something to happen before we commit to 2025."
That is very good news for F2 rookie Antonelli, who will turn 18 on Sunday and can therefore secure his mandatory F1 super license - and perhaps even make his official F1 weekend debut in Friday practice at Monza next week.
"I hope everything goes well with George and Kimi next year," Wolff declared.
"We will soon officially confirm who will occupy the second seat, as George’s teammate," he revealed. "Both drivers will have our full support, 100 percent. That’s why I don’t want to talk about the driver lineup for 2026 just yet."
Wolff said he thinks the ongoing unrest at Red Bull, and a decline in performance, could compel Verstappen to opt for a switch to Mercedes for 2026.
"Before the summer, we still didn’t have a driver for next year," added the Austrian. "And back then, Max was the obvious candidate or even the best possible candidate.
"Now, we have two drivers and the whole team is completely behind them."
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said at Zandvoort that he hopes Wolff now stops his constant pursuit of triple world champion Verstappen.
"He’s absolutely not available to Mercedes, and he never was," he said.
"I’m sure whatever they choose, they’ve thought it through. If they give Antonelli the seat, you’ve got to commend them for taking that risk with a young talent."