Mercedes focuses on Antonelli and excludes Sainz for the 2025 spot.

Carlos Sainz’s chances of winning a Formula One race in 2025 have been eliminated by Mercedes, who are instead concentrating on young Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who is expected to replace Lewis Hamilton. Sainz is giving up his Ferrari seat to the seven-time world champion Hamilton at the end of the year and hasn’t found another drive despite his track record as a proven race winner. Champions Red Bull have confirmed Mexican Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen’s teammate, ruling out Sainz’s chances, while Mercedes are expected to confirm Antonelli as George Russell’s partner. The 17-year-old Italian is currently competing in Formula Two.

Carlos, in my opinion, should be in the lead. Toto Wolff, the team manager of Mercedes, said on Sky Sports television that “he’s done an amazing job.”

However, we have now set out to state that we wish to somewhat redefine ourselves moving forward, and Kimi Antonelli undoubtedly contributes to that.

“We didn’t want to wait for Carlos as well since he deserves to make his own decisions, but we haven’t made a decision yet for next year. That’s only fair. He’s performing admirably.”

Williams and Swiss-based Sauber are vying for Sainz; the former is pushing hard, while the latter is now last in the standings but will join the Audi works team in 2026.

Carlos is the main aim, according to James Vowles, the manager of Williams.

“We’re ready for a driver lineup that, if successful, I believe will rank among the greatest on the grid; that’s a new age we’re entering.

To get this club back to where it was in terms of success, we’re spending tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars.

MONTREAL, Canada Ferrari’s lack of pace in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix was puzzling to Charles Leclerc, who said his car lacked adequate grip to challenge for a spot in the top 10.

Leclerc, who started from pole position to win the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks ago, will start from position 11 on Sunday’s grid in Canada, ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in position 12.

Ferrari sent him out on a used set of soft tires for his final run in Q2, rather than a fresh set, and he lost out on a spot in the top ten. Despite this, he claimed the vehicle felt slower than it had since the end of practice earlier on Saturday afternoon.

Unfortunately, that is all we are not fast enough for,” Leclerc remarked. “We weren’t on the dry at all throughout FP3 [final practice] or qualifying, for that matter.

“At this time, I have no explanations. We sensed a problem in FP3 even though we were unable to identify what it was. Similar circumstances occurred during qualifying, where we sensed that something wasn’t right but couldn’t put our finger on it.‌

“The car’s grip was really bad, especially in the first sector. Once you slide in the first sector, it snowballs and you never really get the performance out of it.” Yes, that was a challenging weekend.”

According to Sainz, the deficiency in output in comparison

Everyone knows that we are a little taken aback as well, given we realized after FP3 that we were moving slowly and that this weekend would be difficult. You never anticipate to go from battling for the victory and pole position to being out in Q2, but this is Formula One.

“I’ve witnessed worse things occur, and we’ll investigate the reasons behind our current difficulties.

“At this point, I suppose I can only say that we are not riding as well as we did in Monaco and that we are losing grip. The lack of grip, warm-up, and ride in Canada appear to make everything more difficult than in Monaco.”

MONTREAL, Canada Daniel Ricciardo, the driver for Racing BMW, responded to remarks made earlier this weekend by 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, after starting fifth on the grid for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

When Villeneuve asked why Ricciardo was still competing in Formula One on Sky Sports TV, he responded, “I think his image has kept him in F1 more than his actual results.”

Just one day after Villeneuve’s remarks, the Australian recorded his best-ever grand prix qualifying finish in Canada, which was second only to his fourth-place grid position during the Miami sprint race.

Asked if he had sent a message to Villeneuve with his performance, he said: “I still don’t know what he said. But I heard he’s been talking s—. But he always does.

“I think he’s hit his head a few too many times, I don’t know if he plays ice hockey or something. But yeah. Anyway. I won’t give him the time of day, but… all those people can suck it!

“I want to say more, but it’s alright. We’ll leave him behind.”

Ricciardo’s qualifying performance followed news earlier on Saturday that his teammate Yuki Tsunoda would remain at RB in 2025.

The Australian’s own future is not yet clear, but he said being in Montreal, where he secured his first F1 victory in 2014, had helped him rediscover his form.

“I’ve obviously been highly motivated to do more than I have been this year,” Ricciardo said.

Miami was undoubtedly a bit of an anomaly. I do it because I want to experience those highs because I know how wonderful those results feel.

“It feels like everything was going well at the beginning of the week. I was thrilled to return to this circuit and drive here because I adore it.”

Ten years have passed since my first victory, which altered my course in life. There are many positive feelings involved, and I had the feeling that I was prepared to do some good s—.”