Nyck de Vries has tipped 17-year-old sensation Kimi Antonelli to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes - and believes he deserves the opportunity because he is a "great driver".
Despite signing a multi-year contract just seven months ago, Hamilton, 39, confirmed earlier last month that he is set to leave Mercedes and join Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season. His exit has given Toto Wolff a tough decision on how to replace the seven-time world champion, with Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz among the more experienced names to be linked with the vacant position.
Meanwhile, Antonelli is another potential option. The teenager has risen up through the ranks and made his Formula 2 debut last month. Although replacing Hamilton in the Mercedes hotseat could prove to be too soon for the Italian, De Vries has backed him to make the big jump quicker than anticipated.
"They (Mercedes) have a great young driver in Kimi Antonelli," De Vries told RacingNews365. "Of course, Lewis is a loss because he is a phenomenal driver with an amazing track record, arguably the best driver of the past decade.
"But where a door closes, a new one always opens, and change is not always for the worse. It just happens, and I hope to see that Kimi will get the opportunity because I believe he's very capable. I think he's a great, great driver, very complete."
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Last month, Mercedes team principal Wolff discussed Antonelli's chances of replacing Hamilton. He said: "We got that curveball thrown at us, with Lewis, in the beginning of February," Wolff said. "And I want to do the opposite when choosing the driver for next year.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been linked to replacing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes (Getty Images)"It's clear Kimi has been in our junior category since he was 11. We have had great pleasure in watching him grow as a young man and growing through the ranks. But I also want to take a little bit of pressure off him - he's 17.
"He's won everything he needed to win in his rookie season, but I think he is going to be a Formula 1 driver. He's going to be a very, very successful driver in Formula 1 but he hasn't started his Formula 2 campaign yet. They had a difficult test in the first days in Bahrain. We'll see how this develops."
Hamilton finished third in the Drivers' Championship last season but has endured a difficult start to this season. In fact, this is the worst start Hamilton has ever had to a Formula 1 campaign. He has collected just eight points from the opening three races and was forced to drop out of the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
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