Kimi Antonelli has already been named as the replacement for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for 2025. Therefore, there would be no surprise that the F2 driver is already in Mercedes’ ecosystem at every race, and probably taking advice from Hamilton ahead of his anticipated debut.
The Italian driver revealed his experience of working with Hamilton, “I didn’t expect it, he’s very kind and talks to me a lot, and the style is similar to mine with a very understeering car.”
Antonelli further revealed that he was with the team in Singapore, and noticed how Hamilton works. He claimed he “learned a lot” by observing his dialogue with the engineers in the garage.
Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli
#ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/jibxGe6bWT— deni (@fiagirly) August 30, 2024
In 2025, while Antonelli would be racing for Mercedes, Hamilton would be at Ferrari. The 18-year-old prodigy hopes to find success when he faces the seven-time-world champion next year as a rival on track.
“If I end up on the podium next year in front of him? It would be a big event,” added Antonelli. Despite struggling with the ground-effect regulations in the last two seasons, Mercedes finally made some progress with an overhauled W15 concept in 2024.
This helped them win multiple races just like Ferrari and are now building on the same for the next season. So, Antonelli hoping to get podiums while competing with Ferrari drivers next year is quite possible.
However, Hamilton being at Ferrari would be a big boon to the Maranello-based team, as his work with engineers often works wonders. While Mercedes ignored his suggestions for a while in 2022-23, the Scuderia can look to avoid that mistake.
Ferrari should listen to Hamilton
Many engineers, like James Vowles, have praised Hamilton’s ability to maximize the car’s setup and performance by working closely with the engineers. At Mercedes, he had a major role to play during their dominance. Even now, Hamilton hasn’t shied away from telling where Mercedes lacked when they started to struggle under the current regulations.
Recently, ex-F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya said Ferrari shouldn’t ignore Hamilton’s advice. He said. “If Ferrari really wants to succeed, they really need to listen to what Lewis needs and build a car around him that Lewis wants.”
While Ferrari might not aim to win the championship in 2025, it would definitely aim to come out as the strongest side in 2026 when the new regulations come into effect.
If successful, Ferrari can map its era of dominance, with a strong lineup of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the helm. It remains to be seen whether Ferrari will be able to achieve it or not.
