Wolff confirms Antonelli won't race for Williams at Monza

Andrea Kimi Antonelli is not in the running to replace Logan Sargeant at Williams.

It has become evident that Liam Lawson and Mick Schumacher are being considered to fill Sargeant's seat from Monza onward, after team principal James Vowles reportedly ran out of patience.

There were rumours suggesting Toto Wolff's young protege, the newly 18-year-old Antonelli, could be a contender, to gain valuable experience before his anticipated full-time debut with Mercedes in 2025.

However, team principal Wolff has denied this.

"We will continue with our program, do the testing with Kimi, prepare him, and he will finish his Formula 2 season," the Mercedes chief told Sky Deutschland on Sunday.

Wolff has confirmed that the youthful Italian will make his official debut in an F1 race weekend this Friday at Monza, participating in FP1.

"It's a great emotion for us," the Austrian remarked. "We started working with Kimi when he was 11 years old, and in Monza he will come out of the pitlane in a Mercedes."

"We want to hear all the grandstands make a lot of noise for him," Wolff added.

Still, it might be a bittersweet moment for Wolff, as Mercedes' recent pre-August break winning form disappeared at Zandvoort.

"First of all, I'm happy about Monza in that we'll be using Kimi in the first free practice session," he said.

"But we have to look at everything now and make some changes to the car. Maybe go back a bit to what we had in Spa. The car we have is sometimes a box of surprises," Wolff added.

"It's not the same car that was fighting for first and second place six weeks ago. Perhaps it was the setup, the track or the floor. Or even all of them put together."

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