With three rounds of the 2025 campaign having now gone by, Andrea Kimi Antonelli has shown why there was so much hype around his F1 debut. The Italian prodigy has scored points in every race so far, including the sprint race in China, and stands as the highest-placed rookie driver in the championship standings.
At last weekend’s Japanese GP, he even racked up two records to his name, which has further amplified the spotlight on him. Leading a Grand Prix for the first time and later setting the fastest lap, Antonelli became the youngest driver to do both of these things.
The race in Japan also marked the last chance the 18-year-old had to beat Max Verstappen’s record of becoming the youngest Grand Prix winner. While that didn’t happen—owing to Verstappen’s own masterful victory—Antonelli has added substance to the claims that he could become as good as the reigning world champion.
Mercedes‘ technical director James Allison has now highlighted the long-term positives about Antonelli’s performances so far instead of showering praises on just his ‘youngest driver records’.
“He will be aware that those two things are a consequence of the fact that he ran longer than all of the others, and they just flow from that,” Allison said in Mercedes’ race debrief YouTube video.
“I think the thing that’s more substantive will be pumping him up and certainly making all of us delighted with Kimi’s development, is that at a very demanding, very technical track, he found his way through qualifying, getting into Q3, qualifying just behind his teammate,” he added.
Allison further stated how Antonelli’s pace was quite impressive in the Grand Prix and similar to what his teammate George Russell was able to do. Even after going on the alternative tire strategy to run longer in the first stint, the Italian did a superb job in the second stint to finish right behind Russell.
Kimi Antonelli finding out he broke the records for youngest fastest lap, and youngest race leader! pic.twitter.com/IVcabyt3aL
— WTF1 (@wtf1official) April 9, 2025
Doing so at Suzuka would’ve boosted Antonelli’s confidence even more, as Allison suggested it ain’t an easy track to do well at, especially for a rookie. That said, Antonelli had complete coaching support for the same from his engineer, Peter Bonnington, and Mercedes’ reserve driver Valtteri Bottas.
The way Mercedes are handling Antonelli’s development, it seems they are helping him build a solid foundation for his future in F1. Given that he is already showing signs of matching Russell, it indicates that he could’ve a higher ceiling than the British driver—something Toto Wolff would not want to lose out on.
On top of that, the whispers about Verstappen possibly coming to the Brackley outfit in the future could help Wolff form a supremely talented driver lineup. But that also means letting go of a solid and reliable driver like Russell.
