10 months ago
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F1 LEGEND Jenson Button thinks his former team-mate and “man crush” is the standout candidate to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes next year.
Hamilton shocked the world of motorsport last week by announcing that he would be switching to Ferrari for 2025 and 2026 after triggering a secret contract clause and signing an £100million mega-deal.
PA
APThe Mercedes job is one of the hottest seats in F1, and a number of drivers will be gunning to fill the empty space beside George Russell.
Former world champion Button reckons no one is more suited to the job than his old team-mate, Fernando Alonso.
Button told Sky F1: “I might have a bit of a man-crush on my ex-team-mate, but I would love to see Fernando Alonso.
“He is 42 now, but the hunger is there. And if the hunger is there, the fitness is there.
“He drives every day in a go-kart or some sort of race car.
“If he’s there, I think it’d be a cool partnership.
“I think they’d learn from each other pretty well and work well together.”
As two-time world champion, Alonso’s got the credentials and is still performing, having led Aston Martin to eight podiums last season.
WHO COULD REPLACE HAMILTON AT MERCEDES?
Mercedes will have a vacant seat for 2025.
Here, SunSport’s F1 correspondent Ben Hunt looks at FIVE potential candidates who could replace him and partner George Russell in the Silver Arrows.
Oscar Piastri – McLaren have sewn up Lando Norris to a new long-term contract that should (in theory) put him out of Mercedes’ reach. However, they are yet to tie down his teammate Piastri, 22. The Aussie has an excellent record and won the Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles before spending a year on the sidelines with Alpine and getting his chance in F1 with McLaren. He impressed on his debut season last year and has the potential to be a world champion.
Daniel Ricciardo – The experienced driver’s future remains in doubt as he bides his time at Red Bull’s B-team. Ricciardo would be low-hassle and offer some stability but by that time he would be 35. It seems unlikely that they would opt for him at this point in his career, but if he has a good season this year, he could come into the reckoning.
Kimi Antonelli – You may not have heard of the Italian, but he is mustard. Still only 17, he has won at all the junior categories and has been part of the Mercedes young driver programme since 2019. This season he has been promoted from F4 to F2, where he has been tipped to shine. A good debut season in F2 could sway Mercedes into taking a risk on him for 2025. Antonelli and his family are close to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
Mick Schumacher – Wolff has always been so incredibly supportive of Schumacher and spoken highly of him, that you’d at least expect him to come into consideration. He knows the team from his role as reserve driver and consequently would get up to speed. But speed is also the problem. He was shocking at Haas and if he really was THAT good, he’d still be driving in F1.
Alex Albon – A more-sensible choice would be the London-born Albon. A great guy who is also very quick. He has a fantastic relationship with Russell and would be the low-maintenance quick partnership similar to Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas that swept to successive titles. Albon would take little convincing to join from Williams and Mercedes would not need to pay him half of the £50million they were dishing out to Hamilton.
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And despite only joining the team last season, he’s out of contract at the end of next year.
Button, who was Hamilton’s team-mate at McClaren from 2010 to 2012, went on to praise his fellow Brit’s decision, saying: “For Lewis, this is a brave move, and a lot of respect to him.
“He’s not just going to another team, he’s going to Ferrari.
“He’s going to a team where they speak Italian, a language he doesn’t know, and a language Charles [Leclerc] does know very well.
“This is a biggie.
So I’m excited for this and it’s great for F1.”
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