Introducing F1’s rookies: Mercedes undertakes a Verstappen-like project with Antonelli

For Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, it’s private selling Andrea Kimi Antonelli to a Formulation 1 race seat with the Silver Arrows squad at simply 18.

Wolff is viewing Antonelli’s sensational rise by means of the junior formulation as the prospect to place proper what went unsuitable in Mercedes lacking out on Max Verstappen’s companies again in 2014.

Autosport understands that the Austrian even feels that, had Verstappen been underneath his wing as Antonelli is now, then the outbursts and incidents which have tracked by means of the world champion’s profession would’ve been decreased in quantity, if not eradicated altogether.

Understanding Wolff is a essential side of Antonelli’s story up to now – 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 house Italian crowd this isn’t.

Wolff signed Antonelli – the son of GT racer Marco Antonelli who owns AKM Motorsport racing group and has a tricky man status in motorsport circles – again in 2018 when he was simply 12. A growth programme with F1 as the last word vacation spot adopted, with Wolff now thought-about a agency good friend of the Antonelli household.

As a a number of karting champion, Antonelli stepped as much as automobile racing in Formulation 4 in 2021 – successful the Italian and ADAC championships the next yr. Then in 2023 and simply his first season, Antonelli gained the Formulation Regional European championship that F1 groups have come to view as the very best 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 immediately in Formulation 2 for 2024 – with the intention for the famously precarious championship to cease his ‘successful straightforward’ streak.

Wolff and co had ideas on this being a two-year challenge 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 instructed me that he was going,” Wolff ultimately mentioned of his resolution to associate Antonelli with George Russell for 2025.

However, in any case, Mercedes was extra eager about how Antonelli delivered in its Testing of Earlier Automobiles (TPC) programme than his F2 ends in a 2024 marketing campaign made more durable by his Prema group 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 certain to memorise all 30 workers members required to run the automobile within the take a look at on the Crimson Bull Ring. Either side took this rise extraordinarily critically.

An extra wise train in testing Tremendous Formulation equipment late in 2024 – particularly to be taught the Suzuka monitor – was scuppered by sickness that had additionally severely impacted Antonelli’s closing F2 spherical in Abu Dhabi final yr.

After which, similar to that, he was being led across the press room by a Mercedes press attache on the F175 Stay occasion to satisfy the media as a fully-fledged Mercedes race driver.

“It has been fairly attention-grabbing,” he mentioned when Autosport requested if he felt his life had modified in that brief time.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, George Russell, Mercedes

Picture by: Getty Photographs

“Winter preparation has been fairly intense. I have been spending a variety of time on the manufacturing facility attempting to do a variety of group constructing. However, to this point, it has been actually attention-grabbing and it is gone effectively.

“I have been actually attempting to focus, daily, on the progress and attempting to give attention to attempting to be taught as many issues as doable. As a result of what I need to keep away from is arriving to Melbourne and having some dangerous surprises. So positively preparation has been fairly intense, however excellent.”

Pre-season testing in 2025 went effectively 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 an absence of preparation in extracting the very best from the Pirelli tyres in qualifying on account of time misplaced in surprising rain after which a battery subject. Qualifying is, in spite of everything, certainly one of his new team-mate Russell’s biggest strengths.

“For the lengthy runs, I acquired fairly a good understanding as a result of I have been doing a variety of lengthy runs and been experiencing various kinds of approaches,” he mentioned. “[For example,] methods 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 sort of out-laps with a view to see how the tyres react and the way it holds on through the lap.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photographs

However, nearly as good as Bahrain went for the Silver Arrows squad, Ferrari and Crimson Bull are anticipated to have maintained their positions above Mercedes within the four-way scrap with McLaren.

This implies Antonelli will probably 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 seemingly Wolff might want to choose his cost up simply as he did at essential occasions final yr.

“After we determined to go for Kimi, it was clear that we’re going for a younger driver that has proven great potential within the junior collection since we have identified him,” Wolff mentioned in Melbourne on Thursday.

“For Kimi, it is in regards to the time to develop, to be taught the tracks, to be on prime for subsequent yr, the regulation change. Which means nice outcomes and meaning moments the place it is going to be harder.”