Mercedes has finally confirmed its long-expected decision to promote 18-year-old junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli to its Formula 1 team next year.
The rookie will make his grand prix debut in the seat previously occupied by the most successful driver in the sport’s history, seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, when he leaves Mercedes to join Ferrari.The team made its announcement despite Antonelli’s unpromising start to his F1 career yesterday. Driving his future team mate George Russell’s car in the first practice session, he crashed heavily after just five laps. However Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was quick to point out Antonelli had shown impressive pace at the beginning of his brief run.
Antonelli said the confirmation of his promotion to Mercedes’ works team next year “is an amazing feeling.” His new team mate Russell spent three years at Williams before being promoted to the top team two years ago.
“Reaching F1 is a dream I’ve had since I was a small boy,” he said. “I want to thank the team for the support they’ve given me in my career so far and the faith they’ve shown in me.
“I am still learning a lot, but I feel ready for the opportunity. I will be focused on getting better and delivering the best possible results for the team.”
A Mercedes junior since 2019, Antonelli rocketed through the junior formulae after an outstanding karting career. He won the Italian and German Formula 4 championships in his first full season racing cars in 2022, before becoming Formula Regional European and Formula Regional Middle East champion the next year.
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Antonelli was promoted directly into Formula 2 for this year, taking a seat at Prema alongside future Haas driver Oliver Bearman. Despite a challenging start to the season for Prema, Antonelli has taken two race victories in his rookie campaign in the series so far, winning the Silverstone sprint race and the feature race at the Hungaroring.
Wolff said Mercedes’ choice of drivers for next year “combines experience, talent, youth and out-and-out raw speed.”
“We are excited about what George and Kimi bring to the team both as individual drivers, but also as a partnership. Our new line-up is perfect to open the next chapter in our story. It is also a testament to the strength of our junior programme and our belief in home-grown talent.”
He acknowledged Antonelli faces “another big step up” when he arrives at the team next year. However Wolff believes Antonelli has “consistently shown the talent and speed needed to compete at the very top of our sport.”
“He has impressed us in his F1 testing this year and we will be supporting him every step of the way in the learning process,” Wolff added. “In George, he has an experienced team mate from which he can learn and hone his craft. I am confident that both will contribute greatly as we continue to build momentum and fight at the front of the field.”
Antonelli will be the youngest Formula 1 driver on the grid when he makes his debut in the Australian Grand Prix next March. He will be the third-youngest grand prix driver in history at 18 years, six months and 19 days old, with only Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll having made their debuts at a younger age.
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juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
31st August 2024, 8:12
He drives just like a younger Lewis, circa 2011.
Sham (@sham)
31st August 2024, 8:43
I agree, he needs polish, but seems to have the talent.
You can’t manufacture talent, you either have it or you don’t. You can, however, learn to be consistent and measured.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
31st August 2024, 12:28
He only needs English doesn’t he? (Sorry)
I wish they’d announced it yesterday, while the session was stopped after he crashed.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
31st August 2024, 10:43
2011 was Hamilton’s worst year in F1, largely due to his off-track distractions. However, he had one of the best rookie seasons in F1 history in 2007. That said, I personally rate Jacques Villeneuve’s rookie year in 1996 to be the best ever, as he came straight from CART and took on an established driver like Damon Hill in his own backyard. Antonelli still has a long way to go before he can be compared to a young Hamilton.
Jere (@jerejj)
31st August 2024, 8:20
Finally. One of many badly kept open secrets in F1 history.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 10:26
Simon doesn’t like your reply.
I think this was smart to announce it now rather than let people start widely speculating about whether the crash might endanger his seat, which obviously it wouldn’t, especially since there’s both literally no one else to sign and they dropped Hamilton to ensure they had space for the kid. Toto wanted to ensure he didn’t miss out on his Max (while also trying to sign Max and making clear to George he’s not that impressed by him).
mog
31st August 2024, 10:30
Hang on, didn’t Lewis leave for Ferrari?
MichaelN
31st August 2024, 10:53
The story at the time was that Mercedes was unwilling to commit long term, and Hamilton didn’t care to be given the Bottas treatment after all he has done and accomplished. Was that true? Who knows.
SteveP
31st August 2024, 11:47
I thought it was widely known that the 2024 + 2025 deal they made with Lewis was exactly that: 1 + 1 with a break clause allowing either party to break out at the end of 2024.
The surprise for Toto was that Lewis was the one that triggered the beak by taking a deal with Ferrari that allegedly also includes extras outside F1.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 13:16
As implied above, he left in the same way Alonso left for AM. Merc thought they could get away with giving Hamilton a slightly insulting extension that was clearly designed to allow them to slot Kimi into the car in 2025 if they liked what they saw.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
31st August 2024, 8:21
I cannot help shake the feeling that Toto / Mercedes want him to be the next Max / Lewis etc more than he is likely to be. Of course he can only be himself, and his career will be a long road ahead and he doesn’t have to win multiple championships to be deserve of a top seat in F1. I just feel that a few drivers might wonder what they didn’t do that Kimi did to get the drive?
I wish him all the best regardless, and in an era where F1 teams seem more reluctant than ever to give young drivers a chance, it’s nice to see it when it does happen.
Bob
31st August 2024, 12:01
F1 as well. Heard a lot more about him then Piastri, and Kimi has a good track record, it’s not even remotely close to what Piastri achieved.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 12:48
I think he’ll be better than George. Speaking of whom, guy must be feeling pretty unloved right now.
Riccard
31st August 2024, 15:03
They kept George long-term but drove away Hamilton by only giving him a 1-year contract offer.
After 2.5 years of racing (and increasingly having the upper hand this year), George is probably feeling pretty satisfied to have seen off his more experienced partner, plus the options of Sainz and Alonso.
I’m sure he’s looking forward to finally being team leader in a top team. He probably feels VERY loved by the team who’s chosen him for that chance.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 16:13
They were never going to sign anyone but Kimi to the other seat yet they’ve been going aggressively and very openly after Max, which means it is his seat they’re trying to get Max in. On the plus side, it is Max. But still can’t feel great.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
31st August 2024, 8:44
Another rookie on next season’s grid sounds good to me.
If nothing else, I love to hear the old hands complaining on the radio about the dumb Noobs getting in the way.
Mind you Toto, after that first session, you might want to increase your insurance premiums ;)
Elvira
31st August 2024, 9:32
I would’ve waited until Sunday afternoon – not to further assess, just to let him keep his mind on his current job.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
31st August 2024, 9:32
Must have been a mix-up and they accidentally hired wrong Kimi.
Leo B
31st August 2024, 10:48
Thumbs up!
TFLB (@tflb)
31st August 2024, 9:49
Kind of makes a mockery of F2 when the drivers in 7th and 15th so far this year will be making the step up to F1 but it doesn’t look like anyone else will. The guy in 6th is now in F1 but there doesn’t look to be any opportunity for him to continue beyond this season.
I just hope RB have the guts to replace Ricciardo with likely F2 champiom Hadjar for next year, it’s be sad to see another F2 champion hung out to dry again like Drugovich and Pourchaire.
As for Antonelli – good luck to him, but I do fear it’ll be a steep learning curve. An exciting talent though – I can’t force my self to have the same enthusiasm about Bearman, just another De Vries, Mick or Sargeant I fear.
Asd
31st August 2024, 10:48
You can’t make a mockery out of F2, because the whole concept of a supposed “F1 feeder series” is a joke.
notagrumpyfan
31st August 2024, 10:51
A steep learning curve is better experienced in F2 or a junior team.
MichaelN
31st August 2024, 10:54
F2 is indeed in a problematic situation. I know they really try to sell that ‘road to F1’ story, but the last couple of years show that whatever the reason, it’s not really working out that way.
José Lopes da Silva
31st August 2024, 15:57
By last couple of year I think you mean the last four decades
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 13:01
The thing is that F2 isn’t quite as straight forward at it appears from the outside. It’s no accident that the Noah’s ark effect often appears in F2 as well. It’s why, a) you should judge him more on the fact he’s beating Ollie than his place in the standings and b) IMO, the series should be even more tightly regulated with either less adjustability in the setup (wouldn’t be my preference), a maximum team size or a maximum team engineering budget (my preference). Also, because all these guys are coming into F2 at different times in their development, it means a lot more that Kimi has been winning lately than (and was always on or very near the pace) despite skipping F3, unlike every single one of his competitors.
In the end, with all the crashes and variation in chassis setup competitiveness, EOY F2 standings mean less than how many times a driven can qualify on the front row and win/podium over a five-race period. Having Kimi beating a known quantity in OB was the final reassurance Toto needed to formally pull the trigger.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
31st August 2024, 13:36
@tflb As i’ve said before the teams tend to not simply look at the drivers placing in the standings because they are looking more at the data and not just the results.
Teams will have there eye on a driver long before they get to F2 & so often what they are looking for in F2 is more validation of the data they already had.
There is also apparently a feeling that over the past couple years F2 has shifted more towards trying to be more about the show rather than what it’s original purpose was when it was launched as GP2 in 2005. The goal then was a series aimed at pure racing to showcase & highlight drivers performance & more importantly racecraft.
But the feeling is that it’s lost that & they are now simply looking to highlight how many race winners they have, how many overtakes drivers can do & how many drivers can fight for the championship & want to have a more powerful DRS system & higher levels of tire degredation to achieve that. These are great things if your promoting your series as an entertaining show but it’s just not what teams in F1 or elsewhere are looking for when trying to evaluate driver ability.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 16:14
Well, the show side has been good. The F2 races are 100 times more entertaining than F1 races.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
31st August 2024, 20:30
I’d argue it was still great before they went the show over sport artificial gimmick direction.
In fact I’d argue the racing in GP2/F2 was way better in those times because it was pure racing and about genuine overtaking from driver skill rather than down the the gimmicks like DRS it features now.
People still talk about some of those races (Istanbul 2006 sprint race been the obvious one) but nobody talks much about sny of the races from the show over sport era.
Iosif (@afonic)
31st August 2024, 10:24
I can’t help but feel that they are putting way too much weight on his shoulders too soon. Even the best generational talents we have at the grid now, Max, Lando and Charles where bought into F1 much more gradually. I don’t doubt he has talent but I really hope he can be as mentally prepared as possible with what’s about to come.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 13:04
Didn’t Charles only have one season at Sauber? Alonso had one season at Minardi, which was so slow it almost didn’t count. Hamilton. Max went to TR for barely over a season only because he basically skipped the entire feeder system. Talent always shows. If a driver falls apart it’s because they don’t enough raw talent to do the job.
Iosif (@afonic)
31st August 2024, 13:29
That’s a very simplistic point of view. Raw talent is not everything, F1 is a very technically demanding sport and to have the spotlight on you can be quite daunting. We can already see that, he crashed the car 5 laps into FP1.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 16:15
That wasn’t from pressure. That was from knowing nothing about the car and going 11/10ths. It might sound simplistic, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. History shows otherwise.
Leo B
31st August 2024, 10:51
Antonelli should go straight to Ferrari, and Lewis should stay put at his logical retirement home, merc.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 13:05
So, George should retire based on your logic and assessment?
MichaelN
31st August 2024, 10:57
It’s a great opportunity for Antonelli, but it seems pretty clear this wasn’t the original plan. One or two years at Williams, then replace Hamilton if he does well seems to have been Wolff’s preferred path.
Whatever the case may be, I applaud them for taking the risk. It’s great to see some long overdue changes in the driver line-ups, and all the better that it’s with some new guys who, even if they turn out just okay, at least have that promise that they could be great. We already know half the current grid isn’t and won’t be.
David BR (@david-br)
31st August 2024, 11:08
Antonelli versus Russell in a fast car (competing for wins) is going to be ‘interesting.’ By interesting I mean ‘incendiary.’
Really looking forward to it :)
SteveP
31st August 2024, 12:01
Given the apparent tendency of George to study the lines taken by Lewis and try to match the data, what’s he going to do next year when he can’t ‘copy Lewis’s homework’?
But, yeah, ‘interesting’ – GR could find himself chasing more than just top dog status
David BR (@david-br)
31st August 2024, 14:05
copy Kimi’s? :)
I was thinking more of George’s ultra competitiveness, Lewis has been fairly chill about it over these 3 years, doing his ‘team thing’ and praising GR, but Antonelli certainly won’t be chill. He’ll be an unleashed Piastri immediately out to supplant Russell.
Dale
31st August 2024, 12:17
Crash damage comes out of the budget cap now right … so every crashed car means less development, or someone at the factory needs to dismissed. By the end of season Mercedes might have 20-30 less people working for them.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 13:08
Yeah, with a sample size of a single FP1, what a sound prediction.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
31st August 2024, 12:20
I suspect Antonelli will certainly to begin with, be fast but wild. I suspect strong performances speed wise but also quite a few incidents and accidents.
I don’t see him being another Lewis c 2007. I think he’ll take longer to get ‘up to speed’ shall we say. Not really expecting race wins unless the Merc is clearly the best car.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 13:12
Well, yeah, Lewis went through a full and traditional feeder program + months of testing in the McLaren he was going to be driving before his rookie season started. They also had traction control that season. So, it won’t be at all an apples-to-apples comparison. However, in the second half of the season, it’ll be disappointing if he isn’t highly competitive with George.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
31st August 2024, 13:50
Not a good look imo after he just crashed.
David BR (@david-br)
31st August 2024, 14:18
@esploratore1 When Mercedes started selling the crash as a positive (look how fast he was! the car and tyres couldn’t take it!) I thought, they’ll be announcing confirmation of his 2025 seat tomorrow :)
jamt
31st August 2024, 16:20
So Mercedes does not believe they will have a chance to win the WDC next year, eh?
Monosodico
31st August 2024, 17:34
Lewis replaced Kimi at McLaren…now Kimi will replace Lewis at Mercedes. 18 years later
Dane
31st August 2024, 18:57
I feel sorry for the guy that there’s so much hype it will be very easy for him not to live up to it all. He’s clearly got pace but at 18 there are certain to be mistakes before his full potential is unleaded.