Mercedes’ next F1 star? Andrea Kimi Antonelli prepares for his next step

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Formula One teams take varying approaches to nurturing young talent in the hope of finding the next megastar driver.

Red Bull’s junior program casts a wide net before looking to fast-track outlier talents like Max Verstappen up the ranks. Ferrari tends to stick with a small group of drivers, only running a couple at a time in Formula Two and Formula Three in recent years, with Charles Leclerc its last big hit.

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Mercedes has always gone for a more methodical, ‘less is more’ approach, preferring a limited pool of drivers who take a staggered, considered rise up the ranks. George Russell and Esteban Ocon benefitted from Mercedes’ support and guidance through their junior careers, knowing there was a clear path to F1. In Russell’s case, he went step by step: F4 to F3 to F2 to F1, never rushing ahead. (Very much the opposite of 17-year-old Verstappen’s leap from F3 to an F1 seat in 2015.)

But the driver who could be Mercedes’ next young star is already breaking with convention, skipping F3 altogether to go straight into F2 in 2024, putting him one step away from reaching F1.

If you do not know the name Andrea Kimi Antonelli, now is the time to learn.

Antonelli — known as ‘Kimi’ but not named after 2007 F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen — wants to be the next Italian to make it to F1. While the country has a special place in the sport’s folklore, chiefly thanks to Ferrari, an Italian driver has not won a world championship since 1953 nor a grand prix since Giancarlo Fisichella at Sepang in March 2006. That was five months before Antonelli, now 17, was born. The latest Italian drivers to reach the F1 podium, Fisichella and Jarno Trulli, did so 14 years ago.

Antonelli’s father, Marco, raced touring cars professionally and helped foster his son’s love for racing, supporting his karting career. Success in the Italian national and European karting championships put him on Mercedes’ radar before he joined its young driver academy in 2019 at 13.

“He was a great kid already then,” said Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ F1 chief. “You could see the character; he was strong. We had him in the (F1) garage, and there was a lot of confidence.

“Then, in go-karting, his track record was immense. Then you put him in the junior formulas, and he wins every single season in his rookie year.”

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Antonelli won the Italian and German F4 titles in 2022 with 22 wins in 35 races before taking the Formula Regional championship this year. The next obvious step was F3 and a place on the F1 undercard for the first time. After all, that’s the typical Mercedes path.

Not for Antonelli. As his season neared a close, reports emerged from Italy suggesting Mercedes was considering fast-tracking him to F2. Wolff urged caution then, preferring Antonelli to focus on finishing his season before discussing the next steps. But Mercedes confirmed the move one day after his final Formula Regional race.

Antonelli will remain with Prema, the team with whom he’s spent the entirety of his junior career, for next year. Leclerc, Ocon and Oscar Piastri all won championships with the Italian team. Over a third of drivers racing in F1 next year have passed through its esteemed ranks.

Skipping a level with a young driver was a very un-Mercedes move — but it speaks to the potential seen in Antonelli.

Wolff is such a fan of Antonelli he’s even entrusted him to help educate his six-year-old son, Jack, through his first steps in go-karting. “We get on well, the families,” Wolff said. “He’s coaching our six-year-old. He’s not taking any advice from me. So with Kimi at least, (it helps) to have some access to describe apexes and exits of corners.”

But Wolff was also eager to temper some of the hype surrounding Antonelli lest expectations rise too high for the 17-year-old.

“We’ve got to be careful because there’s a lot of hype around Kimi,” Wolff said. “Putting him into F2 is a big step because those cars are heavier and much more powerful. But if we give him his time and don’t expect him to be killing it in his first season, I think he can be a really great one in this sport. He was 17 in August. This is so young.”

Antonelli showed few signs of needing time to adjust in his first F2 outing for Prema last month when he took part in the end-of-season Abu Dhabi test. He was immediately on pace with teammate Ollie Bearman, a Ferrari junior who won four F2 races in his rookie year. Antonelli ended the overall test within two-tenths of the fastest time. It was a promising start.

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Wolff’s comment that Mercedes does not expect Antonelli to be “killing it in his first season” shows there is underlying faith and patience for him to progress, coming with the mistakes one would anticipate of any driver in a new category. Next year’s F2 field looks highly competitive, particularly with several second-year drivers expected to contend for the title.

But if Antonelli can replicate his scintillating form from the past two years and be a title contender from the off, it would leave Mercedes considering the best route for him into F1 as early as 2025.

The obvious place would be Williams. It is a Mercedes customer team and proved with Russell that it can be a good place for a young F1 driver to learn their trade before stepping up to the main works team. James Vowles, Williams’ team principal, is also known to think incredibly highly of Antonelli and took great interest in his development while in his previous role at Mercedes. When the time comes for Mercedes to consider a replacement for Hamilton, who is contracted until the end of 2025 but shows few signs of slowing down, Antonelli will surely be a potential long-term plan.

Regardless of the graduation timeframe, Antonelli is shaping up as the next burgeoning talent in F1’s junior ranks. Keep a close eye on him through his rookie F2 campaign in 2024.

(Lead image: Joe Portlock/Formula 1 via Getty Images)