Remember when Toto Wolff suggested that had Michael Schumacher been around with Mick Schumacher in the paddock, the Haas team wouldn’t have treated the Germans the way they did? After Mick Schumacher was sacked, Toto Wolff took him to Mercedes, the team where Michael retired, and gave him the role of a reserve driver. And as Lewis Hamilton leaves Mercedes for Ferrari, the team now shows love to the German.

Earlier this year, just before the start of the 2024 car launches, Lewis Hamilton announced that he was moving to Ferrari for the 2025 season and leaving the team that he won six championships with. Toto Wolff was left with the headache of finding a replacement for Hamilton. Finding someone who can fill in the shoes of a 7X champ isn’t an easy task, and the Mercedes CEO seems to be struggling.

Over the last 3 months, names including Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, and even the young F2 driver Kimi Antonelli have all been teased as possible replacements. However, amid all this, Mercedes just launched some brand new merchandise, and guess who was starring as a model for them? Yes, it was Mick Schumacher, who drives for Alpine in the WEC but is still a Mercedes reserve driver, if the team needs him.

The caption to the merchandise drop on Twitter was, “Our spray camo collection just landed in time for the summer – stand out from the crowd and shop now at the official team store.” However, Mercedes went a step further and commented on their own tweet on how Mick Schumacher was looking dapper. That tweet read, “Can we all agree that @SchumacherMick served in these photos 🙏”

However, despite all these drops and the team praising Schumacher, it seems unlikely that he will be the one replacing Lewis Hamilton. At the moment, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, and Kimi Antonelli seem to be the best bets.

Toto Wolff’s dilemma of finding Lewis Hamilton’s replacement 

Just a couple of weeks ago, Max Verstappen seemed like the most likely candidate to sign for Mercedes, and he was even rumored to have a meeting with Toto Wolff after the Miami GP and have a contract negotiation with Mercedes. However, he recently came out to suggest that money doesn’t matter to him, and Red Bull has the fastest car, so he will stay with the current team. This leaves Wolff with Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz.

Nico Rosberg suggested about a week ago that Kimi Antonelli isn’t ready for Mercedes yet and advised that he go to Williams. Rumors of Williams applying to get special permission for Antonelli have also been flying around the paddock. On the other hand, Carlos Sainz is heavily linked to Audi and even met with his probable future Audi teammate Nico Hulkenberg after the Miami GP.

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None of the cards seem to be in Wolff’s hands right now, and Mercedes would need to be quick if he wanted to sign either Carlos Sainz or Max Verstappen.