Lewis Hamilton opened up in an honest assessment of his feelings at the Italian Grand Prix esot Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he was quite emotional ahead of fp3 at the Italian Grand Prix X on Saturday after Mercedes confirmed that kimy Antonelli will replace him for the 2025 season and Beyond the Brit's departure from Mercedes was confirmed back in February but there has been a long wait for his successor to be confirmed for some time now though it has been known that Antonelli is the future of the silver arrows for Hamilton though it wasn't until the official announcement was made on Saturday morning that the true weight of his departure came over him it was very very very surreal to just have at least officially confirmed my seat is going that I held on to for so long he said so it was quite emotional this morning despite the emotions he was quick to congratulate the 18-year-old hting on his Instagram story Hamilton wrote congrats kimy Antonelli I have no doubt that you'll bring a lot to the team alongside George next year clapping Emoji dot while Hamilton is only just coming to grips with the fact that his 12E stay at Mercedes is ending team principal Toto wolf has revealed that he knew instantly that Antonelli was the man to replace his star driver