Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the son of touring car and GT racer Marco Antonelli, became a genuine contender for an F1 race seat before he even turned 18.
Antonelli drew the attention of Mercedes in karting where he enjoyed remarkable success. He excelled in mini karts and by 2019, the same year he officially became a Mercedes junior driver, he was competing at the CIK-FIA level.
He finished second in the OK European Championship and fifth in the world championships. Despite a setback in 2020, where a crash at the start of the world championship race resulted in a broken leg, Antonelli bounced back in 2021, defending his European title in the OK class and debuting in cars in the Italian F4 Championship.
Antonelli’s first full season in car racing came in 2022. Competing in F4, he dominated the German F4 series and secured his second F4 title in the same year by winning 13 of 22 races in the Italian F4 Championship. He then added an extra trophy at the end of the year by winning the FIA Motorsport Games F4 Cup at Paul Ricard, despite suffering a broken wrist during practice.
In 2023, Antonelli stepped up to Formula Regional level, competing in the Middle Eastern Championship and claiming the title with three victories. His success continued in the Formula Regional European Championship, where he secured yet another championship title against future F3 drivers Martinius Stenshorne and Tim Tramnitz.
After his success, Mercedes took the bold step of promoting the then 17-year-old to Formula 2 for the 2024 season alongside highly-promising Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman at Prema. Despite the significant jump in car performance, Antonelli has showed potential, consistently scoring points and steadily improving his qualifying performances.
Before the season began Lewis Hamilton announced he would leave Mercedes at the end of 2024. Antonelli became a surprise contender for the seven-times champion’s seat.
After the Formula 2 round in Melbourne, Antonelli had his first run in a Formula 1 car at the Red Bull Ring in April, driving Mercedes’ 2021 constructors’ championship-winning W12. After that he began a programme of tests in the more recent, 2022-specification W13 chassis, running at Imola, Silverstone and the Circuit de Catalunya.
Antonelli’s first outing in an official F1 practice session did not go to plan. Handed George Russell’s car at Monza, he immediately reeled off a lap which put him at the top of the times, then crashed heavily on his sixth lap. Antonelli was uninjured, but his session was over.
However by this stage Mercedes’ decision to promote him to F1 was an open secret. Less than 24 hours after his W15 was extracted from the barrier, they announced he would be Russell’s team mate in 2025.
