Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who has been tipped as a potential replacement for Lewis Hamilton next year, has completed his first test in a Formula 1 car.
The Formula 2 driver had to wait a little longer than expected for his first run in one of the team’s cars due to snow at the Red Bull Ring in Austria this week.“It’s been an incredible experience,” said Antonelli. “I loved every second of it.
“The first day didn’t go as planned, we got some snow unfortunately so we couldn’t really drive. But the second day was dry and I got quite a lot of laps and it was really good fun.
“I want to thank all the team for all their hard work and I’m excited for what’s coming.”
Antonelli drove a 2021-specification W12, the team’s last championship-winning car. Although Mercedes could have run him in a 2022 machine which would be more representative of current cars, team principal Toto Wolff said they wanted his first experience to come in a more competitive chassis.
He covered a total of 500 kilometres at the circuit which plays host to the Austrian Grand Prix.
“We did some sim work and ran through some important things ahead of the day,” Antonelli added. “That was really useful because once I was out on track, I knew what the team was telling me on the radio.”
Mercedes scheduled Antonelli’s F1 test debut while he has a break of almost two months between F2 races. He lies ninth in the standings after six races, having achieved his best result last time out in Australia with fourth place.
The team is believed to be considering promoting Antonelli to its F1 team next year when Hamilton joins for Ferrari. Potential alternatives including Carlos Sainz Jnr, whom Hamilton is replacing at the Scuderia, and Max Verstappen, following rumours he is considering an early exit from his Red Bull contract.
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Nick T.
17th April 2024, 20:36
Maybe teams will finally realize drivers are 99% as good as rookies as they’ll ever be.
Free_B
17th April 2024, 20:51
Sooo much hype; so little substance. Poor kid
Dane
18th April 2024, 0:28
Some people felt the same about Max a decade ago.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
18th April 2024, 18:46
@Dane, if Mercedes hadn’t signed their own death warrant, and RBR not done a bang up job on their battery / Honda Power Unit through the works-RBR power train technologies, Verstappen would have been no where in 2021, and he would have nothing really to show for the last two years either. Mercedes allowed Red Bull to destroy them for (6 years) 2022 and 2023, 2024 and 2025 and just more of the same. This is politics, Mercedes are just making mends for playing the system from 2014 to 2020 (6 years). This is politics. Nothing more. Maybe it could even be said Hamilton was invited on to Mercedes to fulfill some sort of political messaging for F1. Its gross. What ever it is, it isn’t F1, not since the V8s at least.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
18th April 2024, 18:48
7/5 years. Close enough.
Tomcat173 (@tomcat173)
18th April 2024, 3:16
What has this kid done to be so highly rated? Thats actually a serious question..
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
18th April 2024, 19:07
a couple of f4 championships, and some regional stuff. His dad owns a racing outfit, which is probably why he made it to f2. The rest is probably very political, maybe a friend of a friend or what ever. I certainly don’t see anything in his racing this year in f2 to warrant any kind of attention. Bearman looks faster even with his poor starts this year. Also Hadjar is clearly going to mop up F2 this year. as long as he can keep his feet on the ground. Toto probably just wants to distract and get people to think about something that doesn’t exist. Hopium.
Unicron (@unicron2002)
17th April 2024, 21:30
When I saw the headline I thought for a second that could be Silverstone – it’s been a brutally cold week here in the Midlands!
Jere (@jerejj)
18th April 2024, 6:09
Albeit still in the double-digits in the daytime.
MacLeod (@macleod)
18th April 2024, 8:09
Yesterday i drove on the A16 ring around Rotterdam and the world became white …… Last night it was 0C and freezing ground niveau. It’s colder then it should… So snow in the mountains isn’t strange :)
Jere (@jerejj)
18th April 2024, 6:08
I’m surprised snow even managed to stay on the ground with daytime temps mostly in the 20s in recent times & 13C as the highest the day before yesterday, but good thing he at least got decent running on day 2, although in hindsight, choosing a Southern European circuit would’ve been wiser to maximize running at this time of year.
Retired (@jeff1s)
18th April 2024, 6:30
Good. Hopefully now he can score a better result than 4th in F2.
They want him so much to be a Hamilton, but he’s more like a Heidfeld at the moment.