This F1 season, we welcome five promising rookies to the grid. In the feature ‘Meet the F1 Rookies’, we introduce these young debutants who have been brought to the pinnacle of motorsport with high expectations. This time, we turn our attention to Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the 18-year-old Italian who has big shoes to fill as the replacement for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Before the start of the previous season, Lewis Hamilton turned the Formula 1 paddock upside down when the seven-time world champion announced he would be leaving Mercedes after twelve seasons of loyal service to join Ferrari. With the impending departure of the Brit, Mercedes put together an extensive testing program with older Formula 1 cars to prepare Andrea Kimi Antonelli for the pinnacle of motorsport. After Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff ended his pursuit of Max Verstappen, Mercedes announced on August 31 that they would throw their protégé to the lions.
Who is Andrea Kimi Antonelli?
At 18 years old, Andrea Kimi Antonelli is the youngest Formula 1 driver in the twenty-strong field in his debut season for Mercedes. The Italian, born in 2006 in Bologna, came onto Mercedes’ radar as an eleven-year-old kart racer, after which he joined the German team’s junior program in 2018. The interest did not come out of the blue. With the genes of his father Marco, who raced in GT championships, the talent won, among other things, the CIK-FIA European Championship in the OK class. Names like Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton preceded him in this.
In 2021, Antonelli made the switch to single-seaters in the Italian Formula 4. During the final round of the championship in Monza, he impressed by driving to the podium in three races. The following year, the Italian dominated with 13 victories, 14 pole positions, and 14 fastest laps, winning the Italian Formula 4 championship. That same year, he also claimed the title in the ADAC Formula 4 championship, also known as the German Formula 4.
Forging His Own Path
In 2023, Antonelli continued to accumulate titles, this time in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship and the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine. He skipped Formula 3 and was directly placed in Formula 2 by his employer at Prema Racing. Despite his team struggling with an unreliable car, Antonelli ultimately finished sixth in the final standings and crossed the finish line first twice.
This year, Mercedes saw enough potential and offered him a seat in Formula 1. In the run-up to the test days and the season opener in Melbourne, Antonelli tempered expectations in an interview with Sky Sports, stating that it will ‘not be easy’. According to him, replacing Lewis Hamilton is also not an option. “Of course, everyone says that I’m here to replace Lewis Hamilton, but I don’t think that’s correct. He is such a significant figure in the sport and has meant so much to people. I’m just the next driver and want to forge my own path,” he said.
