September 2nd Throttle 🏎️💨

What’s up Throttle Heads 😎 Welcome to our first newsletter in September.

Kimi Antonelli Will Replace Lewis Hamilton At Mercedes For 2025 F1 Season

Toto Wolff is going all in on Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes's young prodigy for the 2025 F1 season. Kimi will replace Lewis Hamilton who will be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari at the end of the season. George Russel will remain with the silver arrows and as such will be Kimi’s teammate. Kimi made his FP1 debut with Mercedes at Monza, his home grand prix where the announcement he was joining the team was made. Kimi did have a dramatic crash when going around the Parabolica of Monza during the weekend where he experienced a force of 52Gs.

Despite this, Mercedes and Toto Wolff are confident Kimi will be the right one for Mercedes going forward. Mercedes is looking to develop Kimi into a title-winning driver and there will certainly be hiccups along the way which was exhibited this weekend. This was exhibited through Mercedes releasing a statement on their Instagram account explaining how mistakes, especially with a young driver happen, and Mercedes is here to support Kimi. This is the antithesis of the strategy of Red Bull and Dr. Helmut Marko, who ruthlessly replace drivers when they are unable to perform. Kimi has had a highly decorated junior career with him winning Italian Formula 4 in 2022 and the Formula Regional European Championship in 2023. Kimi skipped Formula Three and went right to Formula Three where he is currently sixth in the standings after winning two races. I am excited to have new talent coming into Formula One and I can’t wait to see Mercedes in this new era without Hamilton next year.

Mercedes Will Replace The EQS Sedan With An Electric S-Class

Mercedes is taking the EQS sedan to the chopping block after its first generation 🪓🪓🪓. But don’t worry, the egg-shaped sedan will not be missed as in its place will be something even better: an electric S-Class. Although it won’t have a combustion engine, an electric S-Class is way better than the ugly disaster that was the EQS. Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius confirmed in an interview with Autocar that there will be two variants of the S-Class: electric and ICE.

This mirrors the approach BMW is taking with their 5 and 7 series cars. BMW has been much more successful with its i5 and i7 EVs than the Mercedes EQS and EQE, the electric counterparts to its S-Class and E-Class Sedans. This comes when buyers want EVs to be exactly like the traditional combustion engine models they are used to. The only difference is that an electric motor is under the hood instead of a gas one. Mercedes has already shifted to the electric G580 as it looks identical to the gasoline-powered version from the outside. The next generation S-Class will hit dealer lots sometime close to 2030. This will coincide nicely with Mercedes's goal for EVs to account for 50% of the brand’s global sales by the same year.

12,500 Mini Cooper EVs Recalled Over Faulty Batteries 😳😳

In what is continuing to be the year of recalls, BMW has issued a recall for 12,535 Mini Cooper SE electric models whose batteries were “produced in a manner which may be outside of standard production specifications”. What a very German way to say the batteries may be liable to catch on fire. Documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show faults within the battery system can lead to battery overheating. The documents also reveal the battery may be liable to overheating when the vehicle is parked.

The recall spans 2020-2024 models with owners being asked to bring their cars to an authorized dealership so a software update will be installed. This update will enable a diagnostic to be run which will be able to detect a malfunction in the high-voltage system. If a fault occurs, the battery will be discharged below the 30% state-of-charge battery emergency mode. BMW notified dealers of the issue in mid-August, with dealer notifications scheduled to go out on October 7th. You can check the NHTSA recall website if you own a Mini Cooper SE electric and want to see if your vehicle is affected.

Land Rover Defender Beach Break Is Every Surfers Dream

If you find yourself hitting the waves every weekend, Land Rover has just released the perfect car for you. Dubbed the Beach Break edition, this extremely limited-production vehicle will be hitting Land Rover dealers for the 2025 model year. Land Rover took inspiration from the surf culture of the United States when designing this vehicle with them even stating Malibu, California and The North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii served inspired the creation of this vehicle.

The Beach Break is based on the 4-Door Land Rover 110 and comes with the P300 powertrain which features a 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 296 horsepower. The Beach Break will feature a white painted roof along with a Tasman Blue body color. The lower door panels will feature the signature rainbow Beach Break graphic. The Beach Break will feature Land Rovers aluminum wheels which look just like steelies. Land Rover will only sell 20 units of the Beach Break which is very low. However, with a price of $73,325, it is a very good deal. If you want one, you better contact your local Land Rover dealer before they are all gone ‼️