Finding the next Kimi Antonelli: How Mercedes scouts for new top talent

Mercedes’ F1 2025 driver line-up is made up of talent spotted and developed by the team’s Junior Programme, which is headed up by advisor Gwen Lagrue.

Both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were snapped up as youngsters before being developed and shaped into becoming talents worthy of being placed in the race seats at the Mercedes F1 team.

Gwen Lagrue: Karting offers the chance to see a driver’s raw talent

Mercedes F1’s 2025 driver line-up of Russell and Antonelli marks the first time the Brackley-based squad has fielded a partnership entirely developed organically through its own scouting and development programme, with Mercedes having signed Russell in early 2016 as he competed in European Formula 3, and Antonelli in early 2018, while the then-12-year-old was still in karting.

Moulding both drivers’ talents, refining their development to the point where they became suitable candidates to represent the entire Mercedes team and brand on the global stage, the responsibility for heading up the junior programme belongs to Gwen Lagrue – a French businessman and manager with a keen eye for racing talent, with the nous and know-how to advise and lead the development of these talents to Formula 1 levels.

Now in his role as Mercedes’ junior team advisor for over nine years, Lagrue previously held a similar role at Lotus between 2009 and ’15, as well as running his own managerial advisory agency, Gravity Sports Management – which had signed luminaries like Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon.

But it’s in the maturation of Mercedes’ driver programme that Lagrue has really made his presence felt, and last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix saw Lagrue-backed drivers score four of the top 10 finishes in the race in Shanghai.

Both Ocon and Albon finished in the points, for Haas and Williams respectively, while Mercedes‘ Russell finished on the podium as rookie teammate Antonelli continued his strong start to life in F1 with sixth place, despite battling race-long floor damage which seriously compromised his outright pace.

Compared to Red Bull’s driver programme, which is headed up by advisor and Red Bull Racing director Helmut Marko, the Mercedes programme has been less prolific in terms of the number of drivers its fed into Formula 1 – the biggest difference being, of course, that Mercedes doesn’t have a second team at which to place its foremost talents, despite close relationships with customer teams such as Williams (even if this was the path Russell came through).

It could be suggested that this lack of a second team is the reason why the likes of Frederik Vesti – Mercedes’ Reserve Driver – as well as the now extremely successful (post-F1) Pascal Wehrlein aren’t on the grid.

But, with Russell and Antonelli leading the charge and thriving at Mercedes’ F1 team, it’s clear that the programme, which was reborn in 2016, is now maturing and yielding results.

Earlier this month, Mercedes confirmed a 12-strong field of juniors across a variety of series for this year, with 25 percent of that programme now made up of female racing drivers.

Lagrue’s eye for talent is clearly a strong one, and he explained the process that goes into uncovering the talents that are worth refining during a conversation over the Chinese Grand Prix.

“Well, for me, when you are scouting a kid in karting, what we like to do at Mercedes is to do it when they are 11 or 12 years old,” Lagrue told PlanetF1.com in an exclusive interview.

“I really like to watch them in Mini (karting’s Mini category, in which Antonelli won several championships in 2018 prior to his Mercedes signing), because you can see the raw talent.

“So you can see the DNA of the drivers – the way they are defending, preparing an overtake – it’s pure, and you can really read the pure talent of the driver. This is quite obvious on track.”

Building drivers ‘ready for the top level’ of motorsport

Asked whether it’s talent or attitude and work ethic that’s most important at this point, or what balance he likes to see, Lagrue said, “Then we’re equally focused on the behaviour, the work ethic, the character, etc.

“To us, it is as important because if you take the top five racers in Mini at the international level in terms of just talents – what you can see on track – they are very, very, very close.

“So what will make the difference is more the personality, the character, attitude, the capacity of questioning themselves all the time, etc.

“Of course, over the years, we’re developing the skills they are having, and we’re correcting, let’s say, their faults, or what they are not doing well.

“We are building them to make sure they will be ready for the top level.

“Not necessarily F1, we know that they won’t all go to Formula 1, but if we can’t achieve F1, we are sure they will have a career in motorsport.”

Like an internship, the key is in ensuring that the development pays off for the team that’s invested into a junior driver – as Mercedes is doing right now with Antonelli and Russell.

With Lagrue as the spearhead for the programme, he heads up a small team of coaches behind him, working with a driver’s family as well as the driver themselves to evaluate the correct approach to take for bespoke requirements – some drivers may respond better to a more blunt ‘stick’ approach, while others may need a softer ‘carrot’ enticement to bring out their best qualities.

The work is to enable the driver to achieve their full potential, an arrangement that will then reap rewards for both driver and team.

With success being found with Russell and Antonelli, does Lagrue feel any additional pressure now to keep churning out high-quality candidates for F1 consideration?

“I think it’s a good gripe to have, and I think where we are very proud is to show that we can perform with all the drivers we have in the programme,” he said.

“We are talking about George or Kimi but, if you look at Fred Vesti’s records in Formula 2, he did a mega solid job. He was in a fight for the title until the end [in 2023], he was the biggest performer of F2 that season.”

Driving for Cadillac, Vesti was one of the three-man driver line-up to finish in fourth place overall at the 12 Hours of Sebring last weekend, finishing just 12 seconds off the lead in the top-level GTP class – proof, if needed, that the Mercedes reserve is a top-flight driver even if F1 opportunities continue to elude.

“He’s still working with us on a sim and test programme,” Lagrue said, “and he will definitely have a professional career.

“As a programme and as a team, it is super important to support and promote young drivers from early days in karting all the way to the top level.

“We still need to keep pushing because we need to put drivers in our team. We need to put drivers for rookie tests, for TPC, etc. So we need to keep developing young drivers ready for Formula 1.”

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An indication of Mercedes’ trust in its young driver programme is just how few have not made the breakthrough. Aside from the 12 drivers currently on the programme – the longest tenure of which is Alex Powell, who signed in 2019 – there are precious few who have been signed to the programme since 2014 who aren’t on the grid.

Aside from the aforementioned Wehrlein, who enjoyed a short F1 career thanks to Mercedes support, only Daniel Guinchard and Paul Aron have parted ways with Mercedes, and Lagrue explained how there’s never been any doubt in his mind about the need to part ways with a driver, even if a personal connection has been formed.

“It’s always difficult when you have to sit down with the driver to tell them the adventure is ending,” he said.

“But I feel very relaxed and comfortable each time we have to do it because I know that we have done absolutely the maximum to help and support.

“We are probably the programme which is giving the [most] time to each driver to improve themselves. We can take an example with Paul Aron. We gave him three years in FRECA. Before that, he was in F4. We gave him one year in F3 before agreeing that we couldn’t continue.

“Five years with us before we stopped. There are some other programmes where you survive a few months only. But we find this absolutely normal, because they are teenagers.

“When you are 15, 16, or 17 years old, you can have a bad season. You can be affected by other elements – outside life elements which can have an impact on your season. These are things you need to understand, and you need to give the necessary time to make sure you have done everything you can to allow a driver to demonstrate his full product.”

In the next part of our interview with Gwen Lagrue, he explained how he believes the next female F1 driver is currently on the motorsport ladder.

With Mercedes boasting F1 Academy driver and Iron Dame Doriane Pin, 14-year-old karting sensation Luna Fluxa, and new promising candidate in 12-year-old karter Julia Montlaur, amongst its junior team, Lagrue explained how he’s applying the same techniques and know-how to identifying the leading female talent across junior categories as he has employed to great success with male talent.

“I think for us, it is important to be precise that we have decided to support females in motorsport before F1 Academy started,” he said, “and it is important to us to give a try, and I hope it’s the first junior programme to bring one girl at the top level.”

The second part of our exclusive interview with Gwen Lagrue, Mercedes’ junior driver programme advisor, will be published in the coming days.

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