Mercedes are sleepwalking into Red Bull nightmare

Mercedes have a driver problem.

You may not have noticed it because, let's be honest, Red Bull have taken the crown for the most worrying trend in F1 driver performance this season, but the Silver Arrows could be well on their way to adopting Red Bull's driver problem if Kimi Antonelli doesn't get his act together.

Red Bull have time and time again promoted drivers up to their main team who were not ready for the challenge of being Max Verstappen's team-mate, with neither Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda proving they were cut out for the job in 2025.

Red Bull are now faced with a never-ending driver problem when it comes to their second seat and having often favoured recruitment from within their own driver pool, this same issue would likely happen again in 2026 if they chose to promote junior driver Isack Hadjar to race alongside the Dutchman.

Hadjar has arguably been the most impressive rookie this season and has certainly exceeded expectations, unlike Antonelli.

Mercedes had high hopes for the young Italian when he entered the sport for his maiden campaign at the start of 2025. Now, those expectations may have been slightly tempered by the fact that he crashed George Russell's W15 on his first outing in Monza during FP1 last season, but, that was in front of a pretty daunting home crowd.

But there are only so many times Mercedes boss Toto Wolff can give the 18-year-old the benefit of the doubt before he needs to face the reality that Antonelli may not have been ready to jump straight into the role of replacing Lewis Hamilton.

Is Antonelli cut out for Mercedes?

Though Wolff may be a big fan of Antonelli, he has been a pretty polarising figure in the sport after just 14 grands prix, with some labelling him a generational talent and others questioning if he was even ready to make the step up to F1 in the first place.

If his struggles persist, one can't help but wonder if Mercedes are walking right into the trap of keeping an unreliable second driver, just as Red Bull have done with Tsunoda.

The Japanese racer has only contributed 7 points to Red Bull's tally of 194 this season which has left them languishing down in P4 in the constructors' standings, behind Mercedes.

And that was even with experience at the junior team... imagine what Tsunoda's form would have been like without that prior experience!

Essentially, this is the risk Mercedes took with Antonelli and so far, it isn't paying off. A more traditional route to joining the Silver Arrows would be completing an impressive F2 season and then signing with Williams, the team that Wolff has often used as a training ground similar to Red Bull's junior outfit.

Russell did just that after joining Williams in 2019 for his rookie season before spending three seasons learning the ropes until Wolff felt he was up for the Mercedes move.

The Austrian team principal sadly no longer has that luxury and as James Vowles continues to work towards his vision of making Williams a top competitor, Wolff should only be taking on experienced drivers who are ready for the pressure that comes with driving for one of the most globally respected institutions in motorsport.

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