Mercedes has confirmed Kimi Antonelli as their 2025 driver to team up with George Russell. After months of speculations, rumors, and reports, the young Italian was announced by the Brackley outfit at his home race weekend in Monza. But what makes the 18-year-old so special?
Antonelli was in Toto Wolff’s mind as a potential replacement ever since Lewis Hamilton made the Ferrari switch. Despite rumors about multiple drivers, it was either Max Verstappen or Antonelli who were deemed good enough to fill the seven-time champion’s boots. As for the Italian, many have referred to him as the next Verstappen.
A dream come true for Kimi ❤️ pic.twitter.com/HpJeZm23YU
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 31, 2024
Antonelli started karting at the age of seven and instantly became a success when he started karting professionally. The Italian won five karting championships, including back-to-back European titles.
In 2019, aged 13, Antonelli was approached by multiple F1 academies. He chose Mercedes as his academy suggesting that there wasn’t any similar aged talent with the Silver Arrows academy.
Antonelli joined the Italian F4 championship in 2021 and drove for Prema racing, finishing 10th that year. However, the very next year, in 2022, he won both the Italian and the German [ADAC] Formula 4 championships. He won 13 and 9 races respectively in the two series.
Come 2023, Antonelli raced in the FRECA [Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine] and the Formula Regional Middle East Championship. The Italian again won both championships that he participated in full-time, making headlines in the motorsport community.
ANDREA KIMI ANTONELLI IS THE 2023 FRECA CHAMPION!
The 17-year-old Mercedes junior took five wins and six further podium finishes to secure the title with two races to go.#FRECA pic.twitter.com/Kml3SPcJ8B
— Feeder Series (@feeder_series) October 15, 2023
Prema and Mercedes acknowledged Antonelli’s talent and decided to push the Italian directly into F2, skipping F3 altogether. Teaming up with Oliver Bearman, the 18-year-old did struggle at the start of the 2024 F2 season. However, most of it was down to Prema not getting the car setup right.
Soon, Antonelli got a hang of things and improved drastically. Tire management was a weakness highlighted but the rookie soon overcame it.
Antonelli scored his first F2 win at the sprint race in Silverstone. The very next race weekend, he won the feature race in Budapest. He then took part in Mercedes’ F1 test after the Belgian GP and impressed Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington.
Now that Antonelli has been announced, as per Formula1.com, Wolff revealed why Mercedes made the decision. He said, “We were convinced of his talent before – it was a question of maturity. Now we are prepared to take the risk on maturity in terms of the pressure of F1. But we see Kimi is in the long-term future of the team and that’s why, at a certain stage, you have to jump in the cold water.”
