Mercedes’ rookie Formulation 1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli rejects the concept that he’s a alternative on the staff for Lewis Hamilton.
The 18-year-old Italian is actually that – Mercedes selected Antonelli to make his debut this season after the seven-time champion knowledgeable them of his want to maneuver to Ferrari for 2025 earlier than final season had even began.
However Antonelli’s level is that he needs to make his personal mark in F1.
“I do not really feel like his alternative,” Antonelli advised BBC Sport. “I simply really feel like a Mercedes F1 driver.
“Nevertheless it’s such an ideal alternative. I’m actually grateful for the belief and alternative Mercedes gave me. However on the identical time, it’s a huge duty as properly, as a result of I’m racing for Mercedes, prime staff, and they also’ve received some expectations as properly, in fact. I’m simply going to attempt to make the perfect out of this.”
Getting into the automobile vacated by essentially the most profitable F1 driver of all time, for a record-breaking staff, seems daunting on paper. No stress, as they could say.
However to this point Antonelli appears to be taking it in his stride. He’s, as his team-mate George Russell says, remarkably mature for an 18-year-old.
“I actually wish to begin with a pleasant rhythm and construct from there and be constant,” he says. “And what I do not wish to do is, like, huge mistake. As a result of while you do an enormous mistake, you do just a few steps again after which to recuperate it takes a bit time.”
Antonelli is a reputation that has been doing the rounds in F1 for some time. He has for a while been considered some of the prodigious abilities in motorsport.
He joined Mercedes’ youth programme on the age of 11 and was promoted to F1 after only one season in Formulation 2.
Individuals who have labored with him have spoken in awed tones in regards to the stage of his expertise, about how he might be the subsequent huge factor.
As such, the expectation was that he would make it to F1 earlier than too lengthy. However even he has been shocked by how rapidly he has been parachuted right into a prime staff.
“In case you had requested me this 4 years in the past, I might have mentioned, ‘that is loopy, not taking place’,” he says. “Possibly a bit later. In case you assume, not even 4 years in the past, three and a half years in the past, I used to be nonetheless in karting. After all F1 was all the time my huge dream however I would not have imagined I might get right here so rapidly however I’m super-happy and it’s a dream come true.”
Is it Andrea? Or Kimi?
His promotion is a consequence of Hamilton’s determination to depart Mercedes, which compelled the hand of staff principal Toto Wolff.
Wolff may nonetheless have farmed Antonelli out to a different staff to achieve expertise for a few years, as he did with Russell at Williams from 2019-21.
Ultimately, Wolff most well-liked to easily throw Antonelli in on the deep finish, put together him properly with hundreds of kilometres of testing in outdated automobiles, and belief his expertise.
Wolff has mentioned he expects errors, and that it’s Mercedes’ job to assist Antonelli develop. And the driving force – who crashed closely on his second flying lap when given an outing in follow eventually 12 months’s Italian Grand Prix – is conscious of the duty.
“I wish to have a clear run, good rhythm, constant,” he says. “However the mindset goes to be the identical, happening monitor and attempt to win, attempt to be as quick as potential, attempt to get as greatest consequence as potential.”
Antonelli’s expertise shouldn’t be the one purpose he has stood out. There’s additionally his identify.
He’s identified universally in F1 as “Kimi”, in all probability as a result of his center identify carries clearly heavy resonance.
However though there’s motorsport within the household – father Marco is a sports activities automobile racer – Antonelli says he was not named after Finnish 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
“Mainly, my dad and mom wished to provide me a second identify that might match properly with the primary identify and the surname, however they did not need a second Italian identify,” he says. “They wished one thing different.
“A extremely good good friend of ours, his identify is Enrico Bertaggia, he has a background of racing. (Bertaggia was entered in eight grands prix for back-of-the-grid groups between 1989-92). He determined to call me Kimi. My dad and mom mentioned: ‘Yeah, it sounds nice.’ And so I received named.”
Antonelli says he understands why everybody calls him Kimi, relatively than his precise first identify.
“It’s extra pure,” he says. “It’s good and quick. Particularly on the planet of racing, it’s such an iconic identify.
“My greatest mates, my shut mates, all of them name me Andrea. Additionally my household.”
Remarkably, Antonelli was born 5 years after Fernando Alonso made his debut in F1 in 2001, and the 2 can be on the identical grid as one another this 12 months.
Antonelli says it’s “a privilege” to share the F1 grid with drivers comparable to Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
And there are different historic resonances about Antonelli. He says his hero rising up was three-time world champion Ayrton Senna, and coincidentally there’s something of the legendary Brazilian in Antonelli’s seems to be.
“Yeah, (folks) advised me that,” he says. “I do not actually like being in contrast as a result of I feel each particular person has his personal character however he’s my idol, he’s my reference, so it could be cool simply to realize even little a part of what he achieved in his complete profession.”
