Andrea Kimi Antonelli: All the pieces you must learn about Lewis Hamilton’s alternative at Mercedes for 2025 F1 season

Andrea Kimi Antonelli is a reputation you can be listening to much more after Mercedes made the daring resolution to signal him as Lewis Hamilton’s alternative for 2025.

As Hamilton joins Ferrari subsequent yr, Italian teenager Antonelli will make his F1 debut with one of many sport’s largest groups as team-mate to George Russell.

Simply three years in the past, Antonelli was successful in karting and now he’ll substitute F1’s most profitable driver.

It’s a outstanding and speedy journey to F1 for the 18-year-old, so it’s possible you’ll be questioning who he’s and why he’s so extremely rated.

After Antonelli participated in his first F1 observe session on the Italian Grand Prix and was unveiled by Mercedes in Monza, here is a more in-depth take a look at the younger star’s story thus far.

Rosberg: Antonelli could lead on the subsequent F1 era

Like all racing drivers, Antonelli raced in karts as a toddler and was scouted by Mercedes at simply 13 years previous in 2019 to affix their junior programme.

He gained just about all the things he stepped into, which is uncommon for a driver in karting, and drove for 2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg’s karting workforce for a interval.

“He can be the talent of the next generation for sure. Now it is Verstappen, then it could be Antonelli,” stated Rosberg.

“But it is early. I was watching his press conference on Saturday and was shaking my head.

“I might not have been in a position to deal with that at 18. He has a foul automobile in F2 and isn’t capable of present what he can do. For Mercedes, I perceive it’s the proper resolution.”

Antonelli dramatically crashed out in his first official F1 session at Monza simply 10 minutes into first observe.

Previous to that, there was an enormous quantity of consideration outdoors his storage and he was lighting up the timing screens with quickest sectors till he spun on the closing nook.

“I feel for him a bit because he’s been talked about by Mercedes for months as the replacement to the greatest of all-time, Lewis Hamilton,” continued Rosberg.

“He’s 18 years old, he’s Italian and does his FP1 outing at Monza. The whole world was watching. It doesn’t get more pressure than that.

“To place it within the wall was painful and that’s robust mentally. I seemed on-line and each remark is laughing ‘that man is changing Hamilton’. He’s sturdy mentally although and the good drivers get by means of that.”

Rosberg stated earlier this year: “He is phenomenal. He is like Max Verstappen-level, it is actually unbelievable.”

Antonelli’s unbelievable rise to F1

Having dominated numerous karting championships, Antonelli made the change to racing vehicles at 15 years previous.

In his first full Italian F4 marketing campaign in 2022, Antonelli had a tough begin to the season with gearbox points and call on the opening weekend. Nevertheless, he went on to win 13 of the remaining 17 races, producing loads of consideration alongside the best way.

Alongside Italian F4, Antonelli competed in German F4, and took seven consecutive pole positions and 7 victories from the opening eight races. Regardless of lacking three rounds, he dominated the championship to win by 47 factors.

In October 2022, Antonelli gained the F4 class within the FIA Motorsport Video games with a damaged wrist, which maybe says one thing about his character in addition to his calmness.

The following bounce up the ladder was to Method Regional in 2023. Antonelli continued to impress as he gained the Method Regional Center East Championship 12 months in the past and the European Championship final yr.

Mercedes had been so impressed they opted to place Antonelli straight into Method 2, reasonably than Method 3. It’s paying homage to Max Verstappen’s quick rise when he went from karting to Method 3 to Method 1 within the house of 15 months.

Sky Italy F1 knowledgeable Roberto Chinchero has adopted Antonelli’s profession carefully and says he has by no means seen an Italian driver as sturdy as him.

“When he started karting, immediately we saw he was a super guy, so lots of junior programmes approached him like Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and others,” stated Chinchero.

“But you always ask, how good will he be in single-seaters? The answer is, very strong. After his first F4 tests with Prema, I called the team and asked how was he doing. The team said ‘absolutely amazing’.

“We stated ‘let’s look forward to the primary race as a result of testing is testing’. The primary races confirmed that this man could be very, excellent. We have now had no Italians like Kimi till now.”

Antonelli finds type at proper time

In February this yr, when Hamilton introduced his shock transfer to depart Mercedes and be part of Ferrari initially of 2025, there was instantly speak about whether or not Antonelli might substitute the seven-time world champion.

The Italian had not turned a wheel in Method 2 but and he made a gradual begin to his marketing campaign however gained two races earlier than the summer time break – first within the rain at Silverstone, then with victory within the Function Race in Budapest.

He’s solely sixth within the F2 standings however has outscored Prema team-mate and Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman, who will be part of the Haas F1 workforce subsequent yr.

After Mercedes boss Toto Wolff’s very public makes an attempt to lure Verstappen away from Crimson Bull got here to nothing, at the least when it comes to the 2025 season, it was all however confirmed that Antonelli could be fast-tracked to one of many sport’s most fascinating seats.

“I made up my mind five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me that he’s going to Ferrari,” stated Wolff.

“Obviously we were discussing other options and looking at the Max idea – we didn’t discount it completely with looking at what happened at Red Bull.

“However instinctively that’s the line-up with these two [Russell and Antonelli] that I all the time wished, taking into consideration the fast-tracking that we did with Kimi and all the things associated there too, however that was instantly what I wished to do.”

Russell: Antonelli exceptionally quick

In addition to his F2 season, Antonelli has been testing previous Mercedes F1 vehicles, first the 2021 machine in April, then the 2022 automobile over the previous few months, at tracks throughout Europe.

Antonelli examined the 2022 Mercedes at Silverstone alongside Russell and the workforce’s reserve driver Mick Schumacher. It has not been made public simply how fast Antonelli was, nevertheless it seems his instances had been mightily spectacular.

Extra TPCs (Testing of Earlier Automobiles) are planed for Antonelli this yr, plus yet another first observe outing, on the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“Kimi’s an exceptional driver, such an amazing track record, in his junior series, always destined to be a Formula 1 driver,” stated Russell.

“I think it sort of shows the strength also of the Mercedes junior programme and reminds me a bit of my journey, starting off as a young kid, walking through the doors in Formula 3 and climbing the ladder.

“I see him each time he is racing F2. We all the time maintain an in depth eye on how he is getting on, watching all the races.

“We did a test together in Silverstone a couple of months ago, so that was a great opportunity for him to get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. He was exceptionally fast.”

Mercedes have been attempting to ease the strain on Antonelli because the highlight has grown on him during the last 12 months.

Nevertheless, when even Hamilton stated he would select {the teenager} to interchange him, it’s arduous to not get enthusiastic about an up-and-coming driver, who has the chance to do one thing spectacular in F1 through the years to come back.

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