Andrea Kimi Antonelli

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, born 25 August 2006 in Bologna, Italy is an Italian racing car driver. He won several international titles in karting and at 15 years of age, progressed into single-seaters and instantly, in 2022, won the Italian F4 championship, the ADAC F4 series and the FRECA championship in 2023, he was 16 only. Toto Wolff discovered him then and, convinced he’s a champion in the making, gave him a long-term contract and took him in his Mercedes Junior Team.

For the 2024 season, Antonelli and his management decided to take the daring bet of skipping the F3 and make the jump directly to the Formula 2, always with Prema Powerteam, alongside the promising Oliver Bearman, soon a Haas F1 driver. The young Italian continued to impress in F2, won twice convincingly (picture-below) and became the number 1 candidate to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. An incredible ascension.

Nico Rosberg, the 2016 F1 World Champion, who knows him well, because Kimi raced for his karting team, declared: “Kimi is really an exceptional talent; he raced in my karting team, he’s a new Max Verstappen, and I don’t say this lightly. I really hope that he doesn’t reach the F1 too early, that he doesn’t burn himself. But am confident and excited to watch him perform in Formula 1 soon.”