After months of speculation, Mercedes has finally confirmed that they will replace the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton with the Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
The 18-year-old story is one of a kind. He dominated in karting and during his first year with single-seaters. He then skipped the Formula 3 category to jump on a Formula 2 car with the team Prema. The Italian team didn’t perform incredibly well at the start of the season, but it steadily got better and Antonelli adapted fairly quickly to the new car, something which is not easy after not driving in Formula 3.
Despite that, he sits in P7 in the standings and has shown signs of improvement since the first race. The Italian has also tested a few Formula 1 cars in private tests with Mercedes, probably intending to give him time to adapt to the fastest cars in the world. Antonelli also won a sprint race in Silverstone and a feature race in Hungary.
Antonelli’s raw talent is known to everybody, and his tests with the British outfit seemed to have matched the expectations. Therefore, team principal Toto Wolff, who has a great relationship with the 18-year-old, is now ready to bet on him and take the bold decision of making Antonelli debut for the Silver Arrows in 2025.
It surely is a bold decision, considered wrong by many, but only time will tell who was right. Even a certain three-time world champion Max Verstappen made his debut when he was very young, so never say never. This time, Wolff doesn’t want to lose the opportunity of having the next generational talent all for himself and is ready to go all in.