Italy has awakened
Italy has not fielded its own driver on the starting grid since the infamous 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. Then it was Antonio Giovinazzi – now reigning champion of the 24 hours of Le Mans with Ferrari – who ended his adventure in Alfa Romeo with a retirement. You have to go even further back in time to find the last Italian podium – Jarno Trulli with Toyota in the 2009 Japanese GP – and the last victory – Giancarlo Fisichella in the 2006 Malaysian GP. But as the Italian tennis world found in young Jannik Sinner the talent capable of rewriting the history books, like this Italian motorsport could soon have its own young star ready to do the same in Formula 1.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli it's the talent that grew up inAcademy Mercedes That Toto Wolff he has been pampering himself for years in the hope of making him, over time and without putting excessive and counterproductive haste on him, the new Lewis Hamilton or the new Max Verstappen. The future of Antonelli – who made his debut in one between yesterday and today – belongs precisely to the two champions two days of testing behind the wheel of the Mercedes W12 of 2021 on the Red Bull Ring track using #12 – it's tied. The current representative of the Prema team in F2 is in fact inside the very short list of candidates that Toto Wolff has in hand to define Hamilton's replacement in 2025.
First choice, Verstappen permitting
Mercedes' first overall choice would obviously be Verstappen, which however – despite all the chaos within the Red Bull team – currently appears to be even more of a fascinating fantasy to try to work on rather than a concrete possibility. Conversely, Antonelli, who has grown in the Mercedes 'nursery' for years, exactly like George Russell before him, is a concrete opportunity and also at low costs. Wolff recently held back regarding the 17-year-old Italian, aware that he had talked a little too much about him already in February, even before Antonelli made his debut in F2, with the risk of burning the boy.
But work on the Mercedes simulator and especially track tests confirm that the Brackley team principal firmly believes in this operation. It is no coincidence that at the end of the month Antonelli will be back in the car, this time on the 2022 W13, on his 'home' track in Imola. Young age is no longer a problem in current F1, if the talent is there. This was confirmed by the recent debut of Ollie Bearman – who is Antonelli's teammate in F2 in the Prema team – with Ferrari. The Brit's excellent race in Saudi Arabia would have given Wolff the definitive confirmation that Antonelli could be the right choice.
Great maturity and a very respectable CV
There Superlicense it's not a problem since Andrea Kimi there are just three points left to get it, easily reachable both through the F2 championship and by covering at least 300 km of free practice in Formula 1. The head, as for many young drivers who have entered or are entering the Circus in this historical period, is the right one. In a recent interview given to Sky Sports F1 Antonelli had declared that he wanted to think at the moment “only to do well in F2”. Talking to the site MowMag instead he had explained that he had understood that I could have a future as a professional in 2018 (i.e. at 12 years old!), when he joined the Mercedes Junior Team: “There I realized that there were some very important people who believed in me and my abilities”. Wolff is one of them.
Finally, in his still very young career, Antonelli has already had to overcome a bad injury: the broken leg suffered in Portimao in 2020. The CV, in the last two years alone, reads two F4 titles won in 2022 (the Italian one and the German one) e two Formula Regional titles won in 2023, the European one and the Middle East one. This year in F2 after three rounds he is ninth in the championship with 24 points scored and in Melbourne he achieved his best result so far: fourth in the Feature Race. Lhe doors to F1 are there on the horizon.
#AntonelliMercedes #great #wait
