Kimi Antonelli had immense limelight on him during his Mercedes debut at the Italian GP FP1. The Italian’s garage was full of media personnel and photographers before the session began on Friday. Sky Sports F1 presenter Ted Kravitz was also amongst this crowd and compared this hype around Antonelli to Michael Schumacher’s rookie days in F1.
Per Sky Sports F1’s behind-the-scenes video on YouTube, Kravitz described the situation in front of the Mercedes garage by saying, “Three-deep with photographers at the front of the garage. And I haven’t seen attention on a driver like this since the Michael Schumacher days.”
Back in the day, Schumacher’s foray into F1 made immense noise with his contractual controversy with Jordan F1 and Benetton in 1991. However, it was his speed and talent that everyone was amazed about, and it led to the brawl between the two teams wanting to sign him.
Antonelli‘s contractual situation was not as messy, with Mercedes the only team in the running to sign him. Still, many were keeping an eye on his performance in his first official F1 outing despite it only being a practice session. The 18-year-old prodigy hit the ground running with a couple of blistering laps to top the timesheets in the first few minutes.
Ride on board Kimi Antonelli’s FIRST lap for Mercedes in P1 at Monza ⚡ pic.twitter.com/sVgVYjN1r9
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 30, 2024
However, Antonelli crashed out after this to put a dampener on the occasion. It was a high-speed spin into the Parabolica corner as the Italian’s W15 ended up in the tire barriers and got a lot of damage. Although Antonelli was driving George Russell’s car in that session, the #63 driver did not make any fuss about the damage to his car.
Even Mercedes boss Toto Wolff consoled the 18-year-old in the garage. Wolff had been praising Antonelli’s talent throughout this season and had lined him up as a replacement for the outgoing Lewis Hamilton for 2025.
Antonelli — the next big thing at Mercedes
Despite his massive FP1 crash, Mercedes confirmed Antonelli as their full-time driver for 2025 alongside Russell on Saturday in Monza. The Sky Sports video showed the elated scenes in the Brackley team’s garage and hospitality areas where even the 18-year-old’s father, Marco Antonelli, was present.
Marco was quite happy and revealed seeing his son sign his first F1 contract was “very special”. He also stated that he wouldn’t have imagined Kimi reaching this point so early in his life despite knowing about his supreme talent. So, Marko felt very “emotional”.
Even former Mercedes world champion Nico Rosberg showered praises on Kimi. Rosberg deemed the Italian the biggest talent of the next generation in F1. He mentioned that the way Max Verstappen has risen to the top in the past decade, Kimi could do the same in the next few years.
