For Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, it’s private selling Andrea Kimi Antonelli to a Method 1 race seat with the Silver Arrows squad at simply 18.
Wolff is viewing Antonelli’s sensational rise via the junior formulation as the possibility to place proper what went fallacious in Mercedes lacking out on Max Verstappen’s providers again in 2014.
Motorsport.com understands that the Austrian even feels that, had Verstappen been below his wing as Antonelli is now, then the outbursts and incidents which have tracked via the world champion’s profession would’ve been lowered in quantity, if not eradicated altogether.
Understanding Wolff is a vital side of Antonelli’s story thus far – simply in the future away from making his first official F1 race weekend look as a full-time driver. A Monza one-off in entrance of his residence Italian crowd this isn’t.
Wolff signed Antonelli – the son of GT racer Marco Antonelli who owns AKM Motorsport racing crew and has a troublesome man repute in motorsport circles – again in 2018 when he was simply 12. A improvement programme with F1 as the final word vacation spot adopted, with Wolff now thought-about a agency buddy of the Antonelli household.
As a a number of karting champion, Antonelli stepped as much as automobile racing in Method 4 in 2021 – profitable the Italian and ADAC championships the next yr. Then in 2023 and simply his first season, Antonelli gained the Method Regional European championship that F1 groups have come to view as the most effective breeding floor for future driving success, in addition to its Center East variation.
Mercedes opted to skip the F3 step on the F1 help invoice and place Antonelli straight in Method 2 for 2024 – with the intention for the famously precarious championship to cease his ‘profitable simple’ streak.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Racing
Photograph by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Pictures
Wolff and co had ideas on this being a two-year mission earlier than Lewis Hamilton’s defection to Ferrari turbocharged the tempo of Antonelli’s F1 commencement.
“I made up my thoughts 5 minutes after Lewis Hamilton advised me that he was going,” Wolff ultimately stated of his determination to accomplice Antonelli with George Russell for 2025.
However, in any case, Mercedes was extra involved in how Antonelli delivered in its Testing of Earlier Vehicles (TPC) programme than his F2 ends in a 2024 marketing campaign made tougher by his Prema crew struggling initially with the championship’s new automobile.
Antonelli’s TPC programme utilised each 2021 and 2022 Mercedes F1 vehicles. Earlier than his first within the former, the illustrious W12, he made positive to memorise all 30 workers members required to run the automobile within the take a look at on the Purple Bull Ring. Each side took this rise extraordinarily significantly.
An additional wise train in testing Tremendous Method equipment late in 2024 – particularly to be taught the Suzuka monitor – was scuppered by sickness that had additionally severely impacted Antonelli’s remaining F2 spherical in Abu Dhabi final yr.
After which, identical to that, he was being led across the press room by a Mercedes press attache on the F175 Dwell occasion to fulfill the media as a fully-fledged Mercedes race driver.
“It has been fairly fascinating,” he stated when Motorsport.com requested if he felt his life had modified in that quick time.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, George Russell, Mercedes
Photograph by: Getty Pictures
“Winter preparation has been fairly intense. I have been spending a variety of time on the manufacturing unit attempting to do a variety of crew constructing. However, to this point, it has been actually fascinating and it is gone properly.
“I have been actually attempting to focus, day-to-day, on the progress and attempting to deal with attempting to be taught as many issues as potential. As a result of what I wish to keep away from is arriving to Melbourne and having some unhealthy surprises. So undoubtedly preparation has been fairly intense, however superb.”
Pre-season testing in 2025 went properly for Mercedes, with Antonelli’s day two race simulation shading Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by simply 0.1s every lap on common.
However, Antonelli left Bahrain lamenting a scarcity of preparation in extracting the most effective from the Pirelli tyres in qualifying attributable to time misplaced in sudden rain after which a battery problem. Qualifying is, in spite of everything, considered one of his new team-mate Russell’s biggest strengths.
“For the lengthy runs, I received fairly an honest understanding as a result of I have been doing a variety of lengthy runs and been experiencing various kinds of approaches,” he stated. “[For example,] learn how to introduce the tyre into the run.
“While for qualifying, there’s nonetheless some work to do.
“Nevertheless it’s primarily due to testing we have been attempting a variety of completely different approaches with tyres. Additionally completely different type of out-laps with a view to see how the tyres react and the way it holds on in the course of the lap.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Pictures
However, pretty much as good as Bahrain went for the Silver Arrows squad, Ferrari and Purple Bull are anticipated to have maintained their positions above Mercedes within the four-way scrap with McLaren.
This implies Antonelli can be doing his studying within the glare of the media highlight to which solely Liam Lawson will be capable to relate of the large rookie crop this season.
It additionally means Antonelli is more likely to be retreading the bottom of studying to win at a brand new and even more durable stage. And, ought to there be any repeats of his 2024 Monza FP1 shunting, then it’s possible Wolff might want to decide his cost up simply as he did at vital occasions final yr.
“Once we determined to go for Kimi, it was clear that we’re going for a younger driver that has proven super potential within the junior sequence since we have identified him,” Wolff stated in Melbourne on Thursday.
“For Kimi, it is in regards to the time to develop, to be taught the tracks, to be on high for subsequent yr, the regulation change. Meaning nice outcomes and which means moments the place it is going to be harder.”
Images from Australian GP – Thursday
Learn Additionally:
On this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Method 1
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes
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