The attribute that Mercedes feels makes Antonelli “special”

The youngest of Components 1’s rookie class, Andrea Kimi Antonelli is dealing with the daunting activity of changing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, however the staff is assured a few of the attributes that made him stand out in karting will assist him ease into the seat.

Born in 2006, the yr Fernando Alonso gained his second world championship, Antonelli will probably be F1’s youngest driver on the 2025 grid after being ready to switch Ferrari-bound Hamilton.

Antonelli was picked up by Mercedes as an 11-year-old in go-karting and, below the guise of Mercedes’ driver growth advisor Gwen Lagrue, the Italian continued his march by the European karting scene.

Quickly after his fifteenth birthday, Antonelli switched to automobiles within the 2021 Italian F4 championship, resulting in twin titles the next yr in Italy and within the German F4 championship. His rookie yr in Components Regional Europe or FRECA additionally yielded a championship crown, and as an alternative of progressing to F3 for 2024, Mercedes determined to instantly drop him into F2 in simply his third full-time junior system yr.

Hamilton’s resolution to depart for Ferrari then prompted Mercedes to speed up his growth even additional, ramping up a personal testing programme to organize the teenager to ultimately exchange the seven-time world champion.

It is a gigantic weight to be positioned on a youngster, particularly with Antonelli’s relative lack of single-seater expertise, and the jury continues to be out on whether or not the 18-year-old will probably be prepared for it. But when something, the adaptability Antonelli might want to reach his fast rise to F1 is the very attribute that Mercedes felt made him so particular to start with.

“With Kimi I seen fairly shortly he was already a bit totally different than different youngsters in karting,” Lagrue advised Autosport. “However again then my thought was: ‘Okay, he is one of the best one I can have in go-karts’, not even fascinated by Components 1.

“Then once we did the primary check in single-seaters, the way in which he tailored himself so shortly to just about each state of affairs you began seeing that you’ve got somebody very particular.

“After all, that does not imply he has every thing. You continue to have to work lots to assist him to develop, to information him, to additionally let him make errors. It is a part of the educational course of. After which, to me, Components Regional has developed fairly effectively not too long ago by way of driver preparation and we have now seen over time that every one the youngsters coming from it – or earlier than when it was referred to as Components Renault Eurocup – to F3 or F2; they had been performing, they usually had been more often than not those successful.

“So, when Kimi did carry out that effectively in FRECA, I used to be not tremendous satisfied at the moment that first going to F3 will develop him extra, and I wished additionally to place himself In a state of affairs the place ultimately he might face extra challenges, and sending him to F2, after all, it required a little bit of preparation.

“But it surely was additionally to place him into an surroundings the place he needed to discover some private restrict he by no means confronted earlier than. I am not saying that he gained at all times simply, however sort of. He was at all times dominating, and he was at all times the one to beat, reasonably than the one chasing somebody, even when we had some good opponents, like [Ferrari junior Rafael] Camara, for instance, or a number of others, he was on high of every thing.

“So by doing that, we had been ensuring that first he’ll be taught the brand new F2 with the concept of ultimately doing one other yr of F2 if it was difficult, or relying on the state of affairs in F1, be sure that not less than we’ll speed up his preparation to Components 1. After all, he was confirming what we had been considering sequence after sequence, for example.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Racing

Picture by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Photos

If it was Mercedes’ purpose of throwing new challenges Antonelli’s manner, then his sole yr in F2 actually did that. On high of adapting to new equipment, his staff and famed Italian powerhouse Prema struggled with the brand new F2 automotive in comparison with its personal lofty requirements, and each Antonelli and team-mate Oliver Bearman initially struggled for outcomes.

Having missed a number of rounds resulting from his F1 cameos with Ferrari and Haas, Bearman ultimately dropped again to twelfth however confirmed the potential to earn a 2025 F1 drive with the latter. Antonelli ended sixth in factors, amassing one dash and have race win apiece, whereas additionally withdrawing from the Abu Dhabi season finale resulting from sickness.

In line with Lagrue, Antonelli’s rollercoaster F2 season, which solely yielded one additional podium, truly helped develop part of his skillset that hadn’t been used a lot earlier than, and that may stand him in good stead in F1.

“I might say that usually you’ve gotten a sure consistency by way of groups main F2, so we all know that Prema, ART, Carlin, or a number of others are the groups it’s important to work with if you wish to ship in F2,” Lagrue defined. “However the brand new F2 truly introduced some new challenges, and we have now seen that the large groups weren’t adapting that effectively to F2.

“Prema was performing tremendous effectively and had high engineers. We put Kimi in there considering, we’ll put him in a really sturdy surroundings, and we’ll usually ship sturdy outcomes. And it seems that we struggled a bit bit.

“However in a manner, it was additionally very attention-grabbing as a result of having Kimi coping with such challenges made us uncover a part of him we’ve not seen earlier than. We had to assist him to cope with tough weekends, which by no means occurred earlier than. He was used to successful on a regular basis, or to preventing for the win, and this yr was the primary time truly he needed to cope with not successful and never performing, and typically even have actually, actually robust weekends.

“And I’ve to say that I used to be very impressed along with his maturity and his management in such a tough state of affairs. And on the finish of the day, he has nonetheless executed a really, very sturdy season in F2 contemplating all we needed to cope with this yr.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes F1 W15, leaves the storage

Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photos