Toto Wolff has revealed that Mercedes moved quickly to sign Kimi Antonelli to avoid him learning different ‘behaviours’ at Williams.

Kimi Antonelli will replace Lewis Hamilton’s Silver Arrows seat and will race alongside George Russell.

Russell had a spell at Williams before his promotion to Mercedes in 2022 but Wolff does not want Antonelli to go down the same route.

The Austrian told Autosprint: “Now is the time to make a change in terms of generation after the departure of Lewis, because nothing will be as it was before.

“We will be dealing with a young team next year. Going into the season with George and Antonelli means we are opening a new era. The previous era was great and now is the time to turn a page and make a new start.

“The reason Antonelli is driving immediately for Mercedes, and will not first make his debut at Williams is because you want him fresh, not contaminated – if you can put it that way – by external experiences.

“If he went to another team first, he would learn different things, behaviours, have different notions about technical things than us. We want to avoid that. I think it only brings advantages to have a young driver with you right away.”