Mercedes signed him when he was just 11 years old and racing in the 60 Mini Kart. At the time, Andrea Kimi Antonelli was an almost unknown boy who was starting to get noticed in racing and went to school in the sixth grade in Casalecchio di Reno, a small town in the province of Bologna where he lived with his family. It was team principal Toto Wolff who revealed that he would support the career of this very young Italian, thinking of the day when Lewis Hamilton would tire of F.1. Things went a little differently, because Lewis will compete again next year, but behind the wheel of Ferrari. However, the other half of Wolff’s “prophecy” is on the verge of coming true: in 2025 it should in fact be Antonelli, who is now 17 years old, who will take up Hamilton’s legacy by sitting in the car left by the seven-time world champion.
Roots
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It’s a closing circle. A bet that starts from afar. The first to understand that Antonelli had something truly special were the talent scout Giovanni Minardi and his father Giancarlo, who gave drivers such as Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso their debut in F.1. It was enough for him to see a few laps of Kimi on the Sarno track to understand his enormous talent. Antonelli wore the colors of Tony Kart, the nursery team of the Ferrari Driver Academy, but the Maranello Scuderia did not move with an offer and he moved almost immediately to Energy, where he was noticed by an observer of Wolff who had already reported Esteban Ocon and George Russell. So Kimi’s fate has taken the direction of Mercedes since 2018. The rest is history. Antonelli’s career, after two European karting championships won in 2020 and 2021, has taken off. He won the Italian and German F.4 title in 2022, then the Formula Regional title in 2023 and this year he moved up to F.2 with Prema. But there was the feeling, right from the start, that it was just a transition season towards an already optioned future in F.1. It is no coincidence that Wolff has planned a busy test program for Kimi with the Mercedes of previous years, in anticipation of the debut, which could even be brought forward to this year. The fact that the FIA has decided to rewrite the rule, introduced after the “Verstappen case”, which prevents anyone under the age of eighteen from driving in F.1, is not a coincidence. Antonelli could take part in free practice for some GPs or even a race with Williams-Mercedes in Sargeant’s place. Of the three tests held so far with F.1 in Imola, Zeltweg and Silverstone, it was above all the third that impressed Wolff and the engineers, due to the Emilian driver’s ability to adapt and the speed with which he tackled the Maggots and Becketts bends ( the reference was Russell and the reserve driver Mick Schumacher).
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Family tradition
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It seems like we are reviewing the path taken by Hamilton, who at 13 years old was signed by Ron Dennis’ McLaren-Mercedes. Furthermore, Antonelli forged ahead, like Verstappen, growing up under the protective wing of his father Marco, former official driver for Peugeot, BMW and Alfa Romeo in Superturismo and tester for Biscione in the DTM, owner of a winning team in the Porsche Carrera Cup and in GT3. He learned everything about F.1 from 1979 to today, “he played with toy cars and even did commentary”, as his father once said. But above all he drove very powerful cars, since he was a child, faithful to that name which was not given in honor of Raikkonen but due to a “suggestion” from the driver Enrico Bertaggia. Little Kimi is now growing up.
