Andrea Kimi Antonelli - hotshoe of Mercedes
It seemed to be a very incomprehensible decision at first sight. In 2024, after Lewis Hamilton left Mercedes at the end of the year, the team principal Toto Wolff was searching for a potential future teammate of George Russell. Why did he decide to sign with 18-year-old Antonelli? And from where is his girlfriend?
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, born on 25th of August, 2006 in Bologna, is considered as another phenomenon in Formula 1. He is not as fast as Verstappen or Piastri yet, nonetheless, there is a reason why Wolff offered him a contract with one of the greatest machinery in Formula 1. To begin, let's return to the 2024 year. Antonelli skipped Formula 3 and went straight from Formula 4 to Formula 2, signing with the notoriously known team Prema Racing alongside Oliver Bearman. It was probably perceived as an experiment at that time, despite the fact that Antonelli had the support of the Mercedes Academy. On the other hand, Prema was dominating Formula 2 in 2023 so the expectations were quite high.
Nevertheless, the facts were different from reality. Prema wasn't that fast in 2024, finishing in fifth in Constructors Championship out of eleven teams. Bearman had to omit four races due to substituting Formula 1 driver twice so he finished in 13th overall. Antonelli was consistent throughout the year and finished sixth, collecting two wins and one more podium. In his first year in Formula 1, at 18 years of age. And he had a solid comparison - Bearman signed with Hass for 2025. In conclusion, Toto Wolff decided that he would be the best option for the 2025 seat.
His first official F1 experience was in the first free practice at the Italian GP, however, he crashed the car after pushing and spinning in the Arboreto corner. He was obviously disappointed and Toto knew he has a long way to go before becoming a proper F1 driver. During the winter break, Mercedes decided to train Antonelli by forcing him to drive around 20 practice Grand Prix races in Jerez, Spain. In 2007, McLaren was preparing Hamilton for his debut season in the same way. And it looks like it worked! Although Kimi finished 16th in his first-ever qualifying session ever in Australia, he overtook 12 cars in total and finished fourth in the race! Furthermore, that is not his biggest achievement so far - Antonelli has won the sprint qualifying in Miami recently and he became the youngest person to start from a front row in any race in history of Formula 1.
Even though he is lacking the consistency so far, he has a great potential and future ahead of him. Additionally, his girlfriend comes from the little unknown country called the Czech Republic. Therefore, it is said that we have an incredible opportunity to see Antonelli in Prague from time to time, where he spends his free time with his girlfriend. I am personally looking forward to seeing Antonelli rising up in the historical leaderboard, because he has a long F1 career ahead of him.
