Today the news that all Italian Formula 1 fans have been waiting for for some time has finally arrived: theentry on the grid of a driver who carries the tricolour high. Andrea Kimi Antonelli, class 2006, will take the Mercedes seat left to him as a legacy by Lewis Hamilton. From his debut on karts to the last season of Formula 2, let's find out who the Bolognese driver hired by the Silver Arrows is. Antonelli's entry is already history: the last Italian driver to race for Mercedes in F1 was Piero Taruffi in 1955. He took part in two races at Aintree and Monza, obtaining a 4th and a 2nd place.
From the birth of a passion to the debut on board karts
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was born on August 25, 2006 in Bologna, in the region known throughout the world as the "Land of Motors". It can be said that the a common for the world of four wheels accompanies him since the cradle since his father, Marco Antonelli, is a driver and owner of a team: AKM Motorsport.
In May 2015, in , his arrives debut on board a kart in the 60cc category of the Easy Kart Championship. With Kart Republic – a team that previously also worked with Hamilton and Rosberg – Kimi wins the WSK Champion Cup 60 Mini in 2018. In the Italian Karting Championship he ranked second. The following year he moved to OKJ and obtained first place in both the WSK Euro Series and the WSK Final Cup. Touch the highest step of the podium in the FIA Karting European Championship, where the future pilot Mercedes conquers the second position. In this very year, he joins the Junior Team of the silver arrows.
In 2020 Kimi advances to OK, wins the WSK Euro Series and becomes European champion in his category, taking home two victories in the four races of the final series. He then took part in the FIA Kart World Championship, where he suffered several fractures due to an accident. Despite this, he still managed to return to the track, but above all to victory, in the CIK-FIA European Championship.
F4: The first single-seater of future Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli
In March of the 2021, for Antonelli, comes the opportunity to test a F4 single-seater on the track in Spielberg with the AKM Motorsport team. After turning 15 in August, Kimi can finally take part in a competition of this category. His debut takes place in the fifth round of the Italian F4 with Prema, a team from Vicenza.
In the first races of Spielberg and Mugello crosses the finish line for well Four times in the top 10. On the Monza circuit he conquers his first podiums, coming second in race 1 and third in both race 2 and race 3. Having only raced 9 of 21 races on the calendar – due to the postponed debut due to the minimum age – Kimi manages to earn the tenth place in the ranking overall and fourth in the rookie rankings.
In 2022 he was reconfirmed by Prema and took part in some races of F4 of the United Arab Emirates in addition to the championship of F4 Italy and Germany. He collected 24 victories in the 43 races he contested: 2 victories in the United Arab Emirates series, 13 in F4 Italy and 9 in ADAC. At the end of the season he found himself eighth in the Arab series with only two rounds played, while wins the title in the other two categories.
The adventure in Formula Regional and the parenthesis in Gran Turismo
In the early months of 2023, Kimi, takes to the track in Formula Regional Middle East driving for the Mumbai Falcons team – always supported by Prema. Already in the second round he conquers the lead of the standings, with two victories in Kuwait and one at the Dubai Autodrome. With a early race graduates Champion, also obtaining the points needed for the FIA Superlicense. For the rest of the year he signed up with Prize at the European Regional Formula, taking 4 podiums in the first 3 races. His first victory in this category came in the second race on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
The young driver from Bologna then won at Mugello, at Paul Ricard and did a double at Monza – but in race 1 he was penalised and thus dropped out of the points zone. With the victory in race 2 at Zandvoort he became Champion with one race to spare. He thus wins the fourth title in the same number of categories in which he took part.
Kimi is an all-round driver, who did not miss the opportunity to add experience to his baggage, also competing in some rounds of the Italian Gran Turismo Championship in the Sprint series with the family team. He takes to the track at Misano with Mercedes AMG GT3, obtaining pole position, fastest lap and victory in race 1, while in race 2 he places third taking home the fastest lap.
Kimi Antonelli will be the new Mercedes driver starting from 2025
In October 2023 it was announced that the future Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli would race in Formula 2 with the Grisignano di Zocco team. Skipping F3 becomes the youngest driver on the grid in the preparatory category. A uphill start to the season both for him and for Bearman – who hopes that Antonelli will also soon arrive in F1. The number #4 of Prema manages to take his first victory in the race Sprint at Silverstone, on a wet and treacherous track. The following round, in Budapest, Antonelli manages the feat of winning his first Feature Races.
Her consistent performance in the years they convinced Toto Wolff first to take Kimi under his wing – bringing him into the Brackley Academy – and then to choose him to fill the seat left as a legacy by the seven-time World Champion. “There are risks”, said the team principal referring to the possibility that the young driver will be put under the media scrutiny as well as being directly compared to the abilities of George Russell.
Wolff, however, reassured by saying: “I'm happy to take the risk because Kimi is a calculated risk”. After months of rumors, finally the announcement that Andrea Kimi Antonelli to be Mercedes driver since 2025 it has finally arrived.
