Toto Wolff has a pretty big headache as he ponders who he should recruit to replace the outgoing Lewis Hamilton at the end of this year. Ideally the Mercedes boss would have placed their academy driver Kimi Antonelli with a team like Williams for a year, but he is struggling to find a top driver prepared to sign with the silver arrows for just one year.
Antronelli is just 17 years of age until August and recently a mysterious team – not Mercedes claimed Toto Wolff – applied to the FIA to change their regulations which demand a driver must be 18 to compete in F1.
FIA change rules to allow 17 year old into F1
This week the FIA bent to this request, rewording article 13.1.2 of Appendix L: “At the sole discretion of the FIA, a driver judged to have recently and consistently demonstrated outstanding ability and maturity in single-seater formula car competition may be granted a Super Licence at the age of 17 years old.”
The paddock wise believe the request was made by Williams who are under pressure from Toto Wolff to blood Antonelli next season. Yet James Vowles the Williams team principal made it clear in Montreal that “Williams priority is Carlos Sainz”.
So if Williams are gunning for Sainz, why do they need the FIA rule change given Antonelli would be 18 by the time he replaced Logan Sargeant next season?
Of course the criteria a young driver needs to claim to be awarded part time FP1 super license has also been changed to allow a 17 year old to take part. So it could be Williams are going to do Wolff a favour and give Antonelli his first try out in an FP1 session to two before August.
Williams “20-30 people” joining with “huge F1 accolades
Williams publicly target Sainz
Given the publicly stated aim by Vowles that Sainz is their number one target for next year and that Alex Albon just signed up for at least two years more with the Grove based outfit, clearly Logan is on his way out and a number of F1 observers believe it will be before the end of the season. This will open the door for Kimi Antonelli to get some experience and give Toto Wolff the confidence to sign him up for 2025.
If Williams were merely giving Kimi Antinelli a few FP1’s this could be done after he reaches his 18th birthday during the F1 summer break. The team led by James Vowles have little to lose by ditching Logan Sargent who has failed to score points in his two years other than when Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified in Austin last year, which saw the Floridian promoted into the points.
Not everyone is happy with the FIA’s U-Turn and ex-F1 driver Alexander Rossi took to social media to show his displeasure. “Oh exceptions can be made, huh?” The American posted sarcastically, referring to how his fellow countryman and IndyCar driver Colton Herta was refused a super license two years ago for failing the criteria.
The American was denied because he didn’t have the qualifying 40 points, yet there were special circumstances surrounding his application made by McLaren. Herta’s qualifying period included the Covid years, where the field in Indycar at times was much reduced. Further the number of races was reduced and so Herta had failed for these reasons to make the target set by the FIA.
FIA 2026 regulations under fire
Alons and Raikkonen did not meet current criteria
Had his average results been used, he would had qualified, but the FIA refused to budge. While driving in IndyCar does contribute to the FIA super license criteria, the points distribution when compared to F2 appears prejudicial.
Drivers winning either championship are awarded the same amount of points (40). However, those who finish fourth in Indycar get just 20 points, while those in F2 receive 10 points more.
Clearly driving in Indycar which is North America’s premier single seat racing competition is at least as difficult as F2 and with the high speed ovals thrown in the challenge is in fact far more difficult.
Rossi’s expression of frustration is shared by a number of drivers in the Indycar series, however the direction of travel over the past three years has seen more and more F2 competitors move to north America to drive in their highest category of motorsport.
Bearman tipped for Haas 1 next year
The debate over whether the criteria for an F1 license is to severe will now rage again because its current rules would have prevented both Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen from entering the sport when they did.
The reason for the special dispensation being awarded for Antonelli is even more obscure given F2 is competing at each of the coming European races up to the summer break when Antonelli will be 18 years of age.
The young Italian is currently in P6 in the F2 drivers title race, seven places ahead of his PREMA team mate Oliver Bearman who debuted in a Ferrari F1 car in Jeddah this season when Carlos Sainz was taken out with appendicitis.
Bearman is tipped to be placed by Ferrari with the Haas F1 team next season who buy engines from the Italian manufacturer. Previously the Scuderia have sent their academy hopefuls to Sauber, but they are progressing swiftly to being morphed into Audi as they enter the sport in 2026.
Hamilton “calculated” mind games send “message” to Russell
Leclerc unhappy with new race enginee
For Ferrari, it was the best of weekends in Monaco as Charles Leclerc and won his maiden home race and Carlos Sainz claimed third on the podium. Next time in out it was worst of weekends for the team from Maranello. Neither driver made it into Q3 in Canada and mistakes during the race contributed to neither Ferrari reaching the chequered flag.
Fred Vasseur has been shaking things up since arrival at the Scuderia for the 2023 season. The team has come on leaps and bounds and is a serious contender for the constructors’ title this year… READ MORE
James Vowles made clear in Imola that they aren’t going to make any driver changes during the season, so expecting the altered age limit to make a difference in this regard & contradicting him is pointless, especially as even Williams didn’t request any super license rule alterations, so the only possible people are Antonelli’s family or otherwise close individuals.
Additionally, zero impact on free practice running as doing these sessions has been possible without a standard super license anyway, not to mention the age limit has only ever concerned ‘competing’ in F1 rather than any F1 car driving.
Comparing Herta’s case is apples to oranges because that was solely about the points system rather than the age limit, & even though COVD-related criteria existed, that meant drivers with at least 30 license points would become eligible if COVID had affected their chances of reaching 40 on merit, which wasn’t the case for Herta any more than any other IndyCar driver.
Ultimately, only Juri Vips was directly & considerably affected, so he’s the only one who gained a super license through the relevant COVID criteria.
Merely mentioning Kimi & Nando (or any other driver, including Max most notably) who gained a super license before the points system & other previously non-existent requirements came in 2016 is pointless since the rules & requirements were different in their times anyway.
Lastly, Haas would, of course, be the team to hire Bearman as a full-time driver since they’re wholly independent team & the thing with Team Hinwill hasn’t happened for a little while anymore, formally stopping after 2021.
I forgot to type that, of course, all 17-year-old drivers with at least 40 license points can become eligible for a super license at any time from the 17th birthday until the day before the 18th birthday through the same new criteria of showing outstanding ability & maturity, albeit while the former aspect is easy to evaluate precisely, the latter is less so, meaning FIA needs to be careful not to inadvertently fall into double-standard treatment.