Why Mercedes has so much faith in Kimi Antonelli, and how it’s earmarking him as the ‘new Hamilton’

What can Andrea Kimi Antonelli have shown that has Toto Wolff, Peter Bonnington and everyone at Mercedes F1 convinced that the 18-year-old Italian can become Formula 1’s new star?

Kimi Antonelli, who just a month and a half ago came of age and a few days later – in the context of the Italian GP – was announced by Mercedes F1 for 2025, won some local single-seater championships – but he skipped Formula 3, and entered directly into the Formula 2 championship this year of the FIA.

He has had some flashes of driving skill during this F2 season, including victory in the rain-soaked Silverstone Sprint race and another win in the Budapest Feature race, but – despite driving for top team Prema – he finished 6th in the championship.

Nevertheless, Mercedes F1 director Toto Wolff is convinced the young Italian has the raw speed of a prodigious talent, and in three days of testing with older Mercedes cars this year he has shown impressively quick and consistent laps, impressing at the Spa test even and “very” Peter Bonnington – Lewis Hamilton’s longtime engineer.

“Undoubtedly, raw speed exists. He’s able to sit in the car and write a series of fast laps.” Wolff said of Antonelli. But success in F1 depends on many more, different and very difficult parameters.

“Tire management is an ever-evolving job, and requires a learning curve. So that’s progressing as well. This is how the standards were set for the development of a 17-year-old, so that he could one day be ready to get into the car.

“You’ll always know if someone is ready for Formula 1 when you ‘throw them in’. I believe Kimi is prepared. We are doing everything we can to get him test days. We don’t sit next to him in the car. He has to do that.

He has the talent, he has the intelligence, he has everything to do well. And we need to create an environment for him in which he can learn and develop.

You have to give new drivers time. George (Russell) is an amazing driver, one of the best. You can’t expect an 18-year-old to get in the car and beat him. That’s not going to happen, it’s impossible”added the Austrian.

Following Hamilton’s example
Wolff allegedly – according to reliable sources – chose the young and inexperienced Antonelli to replace Hamilton – who will leave for Ferrari – in 2025 because he did not want to lose a great sporting talent again – as he lost a decade ago in Max Verstappen.

Antonelli drove an F1 before he was even an adult, albeit only in tests, as was the case with Verstappen. But then Red Bull chose to put the Dutch teenager in their second team before he turned 18, at Toro Rosso (RB, today), instead of throwing him straight into the “deep” Red Bull Racing.

Wolff will not do the same with Antonelli, instead opting to slot him directly into the Mercedes team to follow McLaren’s example with Lewis Hamilton on the Englishman’s debut in 2007.

And he admitted, the director of Mercedes F1, that he has made the program of the preparation of Kimi on this model – of McLaren with Lewis: “I think the program that has inspired me the most is the one that resembles Hamilton’s career.”Wolff said.

“His (Hamilton’s) development in the smaller classes and his impact on Formula 1 came at a time when you could do more testing than Kimi does now.

Ron (Dennis, then McLaren director) said Lewis had to start slowly to get used to F1 because (Fernando) Alonso was also at McLaren. However, this never happened, Lewis was immediately competitive and successful.

With the preparation we can do today, Kimi can get in the car and be competitive. However, F1 today is a different beast to when Hamilton made his debut. There are many more dimensions and parameters than in the past.

There is more pressure and there are social media, so it is important to move everything in the right direction, have the right priorities and avoid what is not necessary. The goal is to create a new success story, like Hamilton’s.”added the Austrian.

Coping with the pressure
Especially on the subject of the unbearable pressure, which Antonelli is asked to face with soft nails, Wolff explained that he understands the psychological burden he has put the Italian under, and referred to the way he will help the 18-year-old cope.

“At the end of the day, it’s the team’s decision whether or not to hire a driver. Our decisions are completely conscious, we are aware of everything that can happen, we know what to expect and how to control expectations”said the Austrian.

And, referring to Antonelli’s crash in the first free practice session of the Italian GP, ​​he continued: “Clearly, it was difficult to managehe all the pressure put on him at Monza. Is that why he ended up at the barrier? Perhaps. I look at driving performance. As I’ve said before, I’d rather tell someone to slow down than make them go faster, because the latter is impossible.

He’s skipped F3, he’s won everything in every event he’s entered, he’s been a Mercedes driver, he’s been in FP1 at Monza, and it’s been a while since an Italian was in a top team… All of that goes under the magnifying glass lens, and I’m sure a lot falls on an 18-year-old.

But, as I said before, he has to ‘swim’. And some days like Monza are hard, and I’m sure he felt awful. This is also part of the evolutionary process.

We see he has the speed. And we saw her in all the laps she did (in Monza). But what he tried to do, the car couldn’t handle it.”Wolf concluded.

Antonelli himself, regarding the issue of pressure, said: “I think one of the main ways (to deal with the pressure) is to know that you have a team like that Mercedes around you who genuinely believe in you – and they believed in me from a very young age.

They help you deal with the pressure very well, and even though sometimes I don’t deal with it perfectly, I still have the right support from Mercedes and also from my family, so I’m really happy to be with them and for the support they give me, no only in the past but also in this time”.

In particular, when asked about the pressure of replacing Lewis Hamilton, the Italian replied: “I believe that it is not possible to replace Lewis Hamilton. He’s such a great figure in the sport today, and he’s achieved so much in his career, that I don’t want to be seen as his replacement.

I’m just her next driver Mercedes for 2025, and I’m genuinely excited about it. He’s a great guy and he’s been supportive.”concluded Kimi Antonelli.

Ahead of his first Formula 1 GP in March 2025, the 18-year-old Italian will continue to do private tests with older Mercedes cars at every opportunity, and also in one of the next GPs he will again take part in the first free tests (FP1 ). Of course, he will also participate in the new driver tests in Abu Dhabi after the last GP of the year.