Andrea Kimi Antonelli, born in 2006, son of art, immediately distinguished himself gaining great attention from the world of motorsport. It was 2014 when, even before turning 8, he had participated in the ACI Sport Summer Camp where Giovanni Minardi had identified his talent by becoming his manager.
Then the path in karting was brilliant, starting with an absolute pole position at the first experience in the race, the Trophy in the debut season, and culminating in the crowning in Germany for the conquest of the European OK title in 2020. During his journey karting also ends up under the lens of Toto Wolff, Executive Director of Mercedes in Formula 1, becoming part of the “Mercedes Junior Drivers” program.
The debut in Formula 4 comes in 2021, once he reaches the necessary age to compete, in the Italian Formula 4 Championship certified by FIA, one of the most competitive championships ever among all equivalent series. In the ACI Sport F4 series promoted by WSK Promotion he takes part with PREMA Racing in the last three rounds: Red Bull Ring, Mugello and Monza.
The first ever contact with open-wheel single-seaters had already arrived with several tests during the season and the stages of the ACI Sport Federal School; the results were not long in coming. 3 absolute podiums in Monza, in the last round of the Championship, which ends in the top 10 in the overall standings and 4th in the Rookie standings.
Once again, Kimi’s talent does not go unnoticed in the attentive eyes of the Federal Instructors who, inviting him together with a selection of other Italian and European drivers to the ACI Sport 2021 Federal Supercorso, proclaim him the winner. The crowning of the Federation’s efforts in the Youth Project came recently, with the official announcement of the name of Andrea Kimi Antonelli on the ACI Team Italia roster.
In 2022 PREMA Racing focuses on him again: deployed in two rounds in the Arab F4, he obtained the victory in the first two races and went to the podium in the following two at Yas Marina, then another podium in Dubai.
In the Italian F4 the Bolognese will be back at the start with the Vicenza team, eyes on him therefore for the second season in a Championship that, in these days, is reconfirmed as an important competitive arena at European and world level, with 15 teams and about 50 single-seaters ready to fight for victory.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Powerteam
Photo by: Giovanni Nappi
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