‘Mercedes’ will start actively preparing young talent for Antonelli’s F1 race debut : F1LV Blog

The “Mercedes” team has not yet decided which pilot will replace Louis Hamilton in the 2025 season, but Andrea Kimi Antonelli, his protégé, will actively start preparing for his debut in the F1 championship.

It was reported that Antonelli is already preparing to conduct F1 tests at the Imola circuit during the Easter holidays. It is now clear that the tests will take place this month. As reported by “Motorsport.com”, Antonelli will conduct the first tests with an F1 car in his career on April 16 in Austria, at the “Red Bull Ring” track, when “Mercedes” will put its 2022 model racing car at his disposal. On the other hand, on April 30 in Italy, at the Imola track, he has another test day.

Antonelli is one of the fastest rising junior drivers since Max Verstappen. In 2022, the young talent became the German and Italian F4 champion, and in 2023 he won titles in the European and Middle Eastern “Formula Regional” championships. The pilot supported by the “Mercedes” factory completely skipped the F3 category and made his debut in the F2 championship this year. At one time, Verstappen immediately moved from the F3 championship to F1.

In the first three stages of the F2 series this year, both failures were experienced, and they managed to show a speed worthy of a winner. In the overall standings, the pilot representing the “Prema Racing” team ranks ninth. In four out of six races, he managed to finish in the top ten, three of them in the “Top 6”.

Antonelli already has the super license required to compete in the F1 Championship, but as he is still 17 years old, his age would not allow him to do so. The Italian athlete will come of age at the end of August, so he would be ready to compete in “Formula 1” next year.

As for the athlete’s future, there are three options. Mercedes could give him the chance to make his debut with their F1 factory team next year or find a place with another outfit, most likely Williams. A third option is to do one more F2 season before making your F1 debut. “Mercedes” manager Toto Wolff does not hide that he wants to get Verstappen in the team, and Fernando Alonso is also running for Hamilton’s place.

In the F2 championship, Antonelli’s teammate is Oliver Berman, who made his debut in the F1 race this year at the Saudi Arabian stage as part of Ferrari, showing himself at his best. After three rounds of F2, the Briton is only 19th overall and his highest finish is ninth. Antonelli finished fourth in the second race in Australia.

“Everyone is only talking about Oliver because he gave a good and respectable performance in his F1 debut,” says former F1 driver Nick de Vries. “But Berman had already completed one F2 season. Nevertheless, Antonelli was also always faster than him in tests and the first stage in Bahrain, despite the less than perfect performance of the “Prema” car. On a track like Jeddah, to train for 30 minutes and be able to show such a good performance, being only 0.2 seconds behind in qualifying, it is a very good performance. It is clear that “Prema” has not yet adapted to the new rules, so the speed of the team is not great. But I am sure that Kimi is a special driver. He breathes with racing. Kimi has been driving all kinds of cars since he was young. He is a caring guy, you can see it when you meet him and talk to him.”