The dawn of Andrea Kimi Antonelli's first F1 season

In the official Mercedes press release they call him “Italian racing prodigy”. It makes quite an impression. Andrea Kimi Antonelli is the youngest of the 20 drivers registered for the 2025 World Championship . He has three Grands Prix to set a new record, snatching the youngest winner in the history of Formula 1 from Verstappen. Max did it in 2016 in Barcelona, ​​in his first race with Red Bull, when he was 18 years, 7 months and 15 days old. If Kimi manages to win by the Japanese Grand Prix scheduled for April 6, the record will be his. Difficult, but not impossible. Verstappen had arrived at the Barcelona race with 23 races already behind him with Toro Rosso. Antonelli did a couple of FP1 practice sessions last year, ending up in the wall at the Monza parabolica on his fifth lap… There is no point in putting too much pressure on him even if he is the driver who is replacing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes .

The first to try to dim the spotlight is the man who believed in him more than anyone else, Toto Wolff: “Kimi has all the talent needed to achieve great things at the top of the sport, but this is a rookie season and there will inevitably be ups and downs. We are looking forward to embarking on this journey together and helping him grow over the course of the year.” The aim is to prepare him for the future, when the rules of the game will completely change in 2026. Toto knows how to protect his investments and Kimi is probably the biggest gamble of his racing career. When, after Hamilton’s betrayal, he decided to entrust the wheel to an 18-year-old rookie, he did it because he truly believed in it after following Kimi’s path in the lower formulas. Toto entrusted him to the care of Mercedes engineers to understand what was underneath that good-boy facade and discovered an unexplored goldmine. Kimi is not only fast, he knows exactly how to improve the performance of a car and when he interfaced with the engineers he showed that he could explain exactly the sensations that the car transmitted to him. It is with this that he won over the Mercedes men, people used to relating to Lewis Hamilton…

Toto has almost adopted him, even hosting him in his home before he found a place in London. Toto is almost a second father, even though Kimi has a very present and not at all intrusive family, despite Marco being a driver himself and managing a team. In Melbourne, everyone will be there, mum, dad and sister. But they will know how to stay by his side without exaggerating. Kimi, who would like to take his final exams in June, seems much more mature than his 18 years. And you can tell by his words: “My mentality is always the same: to go on the track and try to win. At the same time, however, I am aware that the level of Formula 1 today is very high and it will certainly not be an easy goal. What I will try to do is to focus on myself, limit mistakes to a minimum and learn from those already made so as not to repeat them. The most important thing will be to get on the track and do the best job possible, then we will see where this can take us”. To race he chose the number 12, the one Senna had at the beginning of his career at McLaren. It is not a random choice. Ayrton has always been his idol, his role model, even if he was born too late to see him race. He studied him with every means at his disposal, including books, films and stories. He likes the driver, but also the man. Mercedes presented the 2025 car, the W15, calling the season “The new era”. The first without Lewis after 12 years, the first in which George Russell will have to prove he can be a captain and in which to start polishing that nugget called Kimi. George and Kimi are two products of the Mercedes youth system, two home-grown drivers. With one difference, Russell had a smooth entry into Formula 1, starting with Williams, Kimi was immediately thrown into the first team. It will take all the patience Toto talks about. It could really be worth it.

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