Andrea Kimi Antonelli is going to be making his Formula 1 debut for Mercedes this season. The 18-year-old signed his F1 contract even before a valid driver’s license, but that situation has changed as the Italian racing ace recently revealed on Instagram that he had finally received his driver’s license.
Veteran F1 journalist James Allen revealed that Antonelli had described his test as the most stressful experience of his life. “He was speaking about that last night. He was saying that it was the most nerve-wracking thing he has done,” Allen told talkSPORT Driving.
Allen then went on to reveal exactly why the 18-year-old was so nervous for his driving test. “He knew that with a 24-race F1 calendar coming up, if he didn’t pass his test this week, then he wasn’t going to get another chance probably till the summer break, in August,” he explained.
Kimi Antonelli passed his road driving test this week…
He’s already driven an #F1 car at speeds of over 300 KM/H pic.twitter.com/mclwvwFNoc
— Formula 1 (@F1) January 28, 2025
But Antonelli isn’t the only Formula 1 driver on the current 2025 grid that had to go through such an experience. In fact, four-time world champion Max Verstappen made his debut for Toro Rosso in 2015 at the age of just 17, and that too without a valid driver’s license! But many may wonder — why do F1 racers, who drive at over 200 mph, need a driver’s license?
Is it that F1 racers are not good road drivers?
From an outside perspective, it might seem appalling to someone that F1 drivers aren’t qualified to become road drivers. But in reality, there are several racers on the grid who feel nervous driving road cars as opposed to race cars.
Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton once claimed he finds it stressful to drive outside of F1. “I just think that I find it [driving outside F1] stressful. I try not to do things that don’t add to my life,” he had said per The Guardian back in 2022.
Meanwhile, his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc is arguably one of the worst F1 drivers on the road. Not only does the Monegasque struggle with parallel parking but he recently also had a fender bender when he nonchalantly crashed his Ferrari Purosangue into the back of another car in Monaco while driving at extremely low speeds.
