The saga around Lewis Hamilton’s replacement may finally end at the 2024 Italian GP. Several reports suggest that Mercedes will announce Andrea Kimi Antonelli as Hamilton’s replacement at the Monza weekend — mainly due to the former’s Italian roots.
Besides this confirmation of getting the 2025 Mercedes seat, Antonelli will also be making an FP1 appearance at Monza, per Motorsport Italy. While this is part of the mandatory rookie FP1 outings for the Silver Arrows, Antonelli will take to the track in Mercedes colors for the first time at Monza in the W15.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is set to be handed his first FP1 outing with Mercedes at the Italian GP – which will ramp up preparations for his potential promotion to its F1 line-up from 2025
FULL STORY: https://t.co/pz0baWAxky pic.twitter.com/Kq0WWZlW04
— Autosport (@autosport) August 21, 2024
The Italian has been testing with Mercedes this season and drove the 2021 and 2022 cars, but all of those have been closed-door sessions. The Monza FP1 will be his first session for the team at a Grand Prix weekend.
And deservedly so, as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has been showering praises on the 17-year-old’s talents and his wish to promote him to the race seat at Brackley. Moreover, Antonelli‘s impeccable junior category performances have set high expectations for him.
However, he is not taking any stress about the same. In an exclusive with Autosport, Antonelli said, “I’m not afraid of being judged. I know Mercedes has a clear opinion about my potential, already this season in F2 the championship didn’t kick off in the best way but there were no negative thoughts.”
The 17-year-old said that he has felt the “pressure” of the rumors around his potential Mercedes promotion. But he is looking to “enjoy” it, as replacing a seven-time champion will anyway be pressurizing.
However, Mercedes seems faithful that Antonelli can carry the weight of that pressure and deliver on their expectations. As for the Monza weekend, the Brackley outfit may have a special ceremony for announcing their signing of the Italian prodigy.
Hamilton to hand over the baton to Antonelli
With Hamilton leaving for Ferrari in 2025, the Italian GP will certainly have a lot of fanfare for the Briton as well. Moreover, a special handover ceremony — wherein the seven-time champion may symbolically pass over his Mercedes baton to Antonelli — would make it even better.
The Italian youngster would also get a huge round of applause from the Italian crowd at Monza. Many have deemed Antonelli as the next Max Verstappen. That is why, Wolff has been keen to not lose the 17-year-old talent and promote him for next season.
It would be interesting to see how well the F2 driver delivers on Wolff and Mercedes’ faith in the coming years. If Antonelli can emulate Verstappen’s championship success, he would only be the third Italian to become an F1 world champion after Giuseppe Farina and Alberto Ascari.
