F1: The attribute that Mercedes feels makes Antonelli "particular"

The youngest of Method 1’s rookie class, Andrea Kimi Antonelli is going through the daunting job of changing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, however the staff is assured a number of the attributes that made him stand out in karting will assist him ease into the seat.

Born in 2006, the yr Fernando Alonso gained his second world championship, Antonelli might be F1’s youngest driver on the 2025 grid after being ready to exchange Ferrari-bound Hamilton.

Antonelli was picked up by Mercedes as an 11-year-old in go-karting and beneath the guise of Mercedes’ driver growth advisor Gwen Lagrue the Italian continued his march by the European karting scene.

Quickly after his fifteenth birthday Antonelli switched to vehicles within the 2021 Italian F4 championship, resulting in twin titles the next yr in Italy and within the German F4 championship. His rookie yr in Method Regional Europe or FRECA additionally yielded a championship crown, and as an alternative of progressing to F3 for 2024, Mercedes determined to right away drop him into F2 in simply his third full-time junior formulation yr.

Hamilton’s choice to depart for Ferrari then prompted Mercedes to speed up his growth even additional, ramping up a non-public testing programme to organize the teenager to ultimately change the seven-time world champion.

It is a gigantic weight to be positioned on a youngster, particularly with Antonelli’s relative lack of single-seater expertise, and the jury remains to be out on whether or not the 18-year-old might be prepared for it. But when something, the adaptability Antonelli might want to reach his fast rise to F1 is the very attribute that Mercedes felt made him so particular to start with.

“With Kimi I seen fairly shortly he was already a bit completely different than different youngsters in karting,” Lagrue advised Motorsport.com. “However again then my thought was: ‘Okay, he is the perfect one I can have in go-karts’, not even fascinated about Method 1.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli

“Then after we did the primary check in single-seaters, the way in which he tailored himself so shortly to just about each scenario you began seeing that you’ve got somebody very particular.

“In fact, that does not imply he has every part. You continue to must work rather a lot to assist him to develop, to information him, to additionally let him make errors. It is a part of the training course of. After which, to me, Method Regional has developed fairly nicely not too long ago when it comes to driver preparation and we have now seen over time that every one the children coming from it – or earlier than when it was referred to as Method Renault Eurocup – to F3 or F2; they have been performing, and so they have been more often than not those successful.

“So, when Kimi did carry out that nicely in FRECA, I used to be not tremendous satisfied at the moment that first going to F3 will develop him extra, and I needed additionally to place himself In a scenario the place ultimately he may face extra challenges, and sending him to F2, in fact, it required a little bit of preparation.

“But it surely was additionally to place him into an surroundings the place he needed to discover some private restrict he by no means confronted earlier than. I am not saying that he gained all the time simply, however type of. He was all the time dominating, and he was all the time the one to beat, somewhat than the one chasing somebody, even when we had some good rivals, like [Ferrari junior Rafael] Camara, for instance, or just a few others, he was on high of every part.

“So by doing that, we have been ensuring that first he’ll be taught the brand new F2 with the thought of ultimately doing one other yr of F2 if it was difficult, or relying on the scenario in F1, ensure that at the very least we are going to speed up his preparation to Method 1. In fact, he was confirming what we have been pondering collection after collection, for instance.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Racing

Picture by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Pictures

If it was Mercedes’ aim of throwing new challenges Antonelli’s method, then his sole yr in F2 actually did that. On high of adapting to new equipment, his staff and famed Italian powerhouse Prema struggled with the brand new F2 automotive in comparison with its personal lofty requirements, and each Antonelli and team-mate Oliver Bearman initially struggled for outcomes.

Having missed a number of rounds because of his F1 cameos with Ferrari and Haas, Bearman ultimately dropped again to twelfth however confirmed the potential to earn a 2025 F1 drive with the latter. Antonelli ended sixth in factors, accumulating one dash and have race win apiece, whereas additionally withdrawing from the Abu Dhabi season finale because of sickness.

In line with Lagrue Antonelli’s rollercoaster F2 season, which solely yielded one additional podium, truly helped develop part of his skillset that hadn’t been used a lot earlier than, and that may stand him in good stead in F1.

“I might say that usually you have got a sure consistency when it comes to groups main F2, so we all know that Prema, ART, Carlin, or just a few others are the groups you must work with if you wish to ship in F2,” Lagrue defined. “However the brand new F2 truly introduced some new challenges, and we have now seen that the massive groups weren’t adapting that nicely to F2.

“Prema was performing tremendous nicely and had high engineers. We put Kimi in there pondering, we are going to put him in a really sturdy surroundings, and we are going to usually ship sturdy outcomes. And it seems that we struggled just a little bit.

“However in a method, it was additionally very attention-grabbing as a result of having Kimi coping with such challenges made us uncover a part of him we’ve not seen earlier than. We had to assist him to take care of troublesome weekends, which by no means occurred earlier than. He was used to successful on a regular basis, or to combating for the win, and this yr was the primary time truly he needed to take care of not successful and never performing, and typically even have actually, actually robust weekends.

“And I’ve to say that I used to be very impressed together with his maturity and his management in such a troublesome scenario. And on the finish of the day, he has nonetheless accomplished a really, very sturdy season in F2 contemplating all we needed to take care of this yr.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes F1 W15, leaves the garage