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Kimi Antonelli’s first public outing as a Formula 1 driver at Monza on Friday ended with a 52g crash at Parabolica, but his second went much better.
He didn’t face the media on Friday evening as originally planned, with the team saying he felt unwell, but Saturday morning’s announcement that he will be a Mercedes grand prix driver meant a more relaxed appearance alongside team principal Toto Wolff and new team-mate George Russell shortly afterwards.
Antonelli appeared comfortable enough, but rightly a little cautious given so momentous an occasion.
Asked to describe himself as a character and a driver, he offered up being “a really empathic person, and while on track, I have quite an aggressive driving style”, but beyond that “not a lot”.
Wolff then bailed him out, offering his opinion that it’s “the right answer” given how anyone being asked to talk about themselves in such circumstances inevitably comes across badly.
That in itself showed Wolff knows the decision he’s taken to throw Antonelli in at the deep end in 2025 requires support in the form of an ever-present safety net from Mercedes.
You might assume Antonelli would be the proverbial ‘rabbit in headlights’, unsure how to react and on edge after his FP1 crash. Yet he was neither monosyllabic nor garrulous, speaking honestly, reacting in good spirit to Wolff’s joke that “the difference between free practice and qualifying we need to discuss” while talking up Antonelli’s ability to get up to speed immediately.
Antonelli himself talked of the value of getting back on the F2 horse quickly after throwing his F1 mount at the scenery. The ability to reset, to learn and go again after the mistakes that will inevitably happen at times next year will stand him in good stead.
“It was not the ideal session,” said Antonelli. “I learned a lesson unfortunately in a tough way, I learned that you cannot go flat out looking for the limit straight away. Especially looking back, the track was very slippery, the grip was quite a bit lower than expected so just pushing too hard and for sure for the next few times I will just try to build it up more progressively instead of just trying to find the limit.
"Right after the crash, the next 30 minutes were really difficult, then I just tried to reset because I had to do an F2 quali just an hour after FP1. Having the session right after really helped me to just forget about what happened.”
While this was Antonelli’s day, really the Saturday media session was Wolff’s show. He did the majority of the talking, occasionally backed up by Russell and with Antonelli answering questions succinctly when asked, at every turn making it clear just how deep his belief is in Antonelli and his delight at having a line-up comprising two drivers nurtured by his team that he believes are capable of great things.
“The rare species of racing drivers that are capable of winning year after year, championship after championship, doesn’t exist very often,” said Wolff in conclusion. “That we are sitting here with two of them that have been delivering is super-proud for us at Mercedes. And having a full young driver line-up now with the two of you is much more than just a driver announcement for all of us at Mercedes.”
So what did we learn from it all?
When did Wolff really decide on Antonelli?
It was clear from early on that Wolff was seriously considering Antonelli given how highly-rated he was ever since being signed up by Mercedes whilst in karting, with The Race revealing soon after the Lewis Hamilton/Ferrari news that Antonelli was on pole for the drive.
Wolff confirmed that he almost immediately made up his mind that Antonelli would race for the team once he knew he’d need to replace Lewis Hamilton.
“I made up my mind five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me that he's going to Ferrari,” said Wolff. “Obviously, we were discussing with other options, and also kept the Max [Verstappen] idea [open], didn’t discount it completely looking at what happened at Red Bull.
“But instinctively, that is the line-up with these two that I always wanted bearing in mind the fast-tracking that we did with Kimi and everything related there too. That was immediately what I wanted to do.”
As Wolff says, other options were open with Verstappen the long shot – and no doubt had a move been possible for next year it would have happened – and Carlos Sainz the fallback.
But it shows the level of confidence in Antonelli, as well as the appeal of having him in the car next year, that existed from the start.
Is Mercedes still dreaming of Verstappen?
The Mercedes announcement referenced only the driver line-up for 2025. Wolff has been frank about his pursuit of Verstappen, saying earlier this year that “there is no team up and down the grid who wouldn’t do handstands to have him in the car”.
While Wolff sees the Russell/Antonelli line-up as the future, Verstappen is clearly still on the radar. Wolff didn’t directly address the potential availability for 2026 (and it should be noted Verstappen’s Red Bull deal runs to the end of ’28), but he did say that if there is any of what he called ‘flirting’ with Verstappen or any other driver, he would be transparent about it with his current drivers.
“What I appreciate also in dealing with them [is] it's just very straightforward and transparent,” said Wolff.
“And I don't flirt outside, I've always said it, I got really caught out by the Lewis situation, but I've not entertained any discussions with any drivers when giving it all from the team to make it a success. And this is why all of our focus in the team is on George and Kimi.
“There’s no discussion, there’s no second thoughts about what we are doing for 2026 because now it’s about 2024 and 2025 and if flirting outside happens then these guys will know it at the same time when we have those discussions.”
What he didn’t say, but might be thinking, is that If Verstappen were to be available and both Russell and Antonelli are performing well then it’s the classic good problem to have.
Why was Williams 2024 chance shunned?
There was a possibility that Williams could run Antonelli as a race driver for part of this season given the now-dropped Logan Sargeant's parlous status in recent months, but Wolff says he always wanted the focus to be on the TPC (testing of previous cars) running in old F1 machinery.
The TPC programme is ongoing for Antonelli, but so far he has logged nine days across the Red Bull Ring, Imola, Barcelona, Spa and Silverstone. His first taste was in the 2021 car built to the old regulations before he moved into the ground-effect ’22 Mercedes W13. In total, he has already racked up almost 4500km of TPC running.
“The TPC testing this year was of real importance,” said Wolff when asked by The Race how that programme was used to develop Antonelli.
“We will continue with that because when you look at the blueprint back in the day that Lewis had, it was a lot of testing not only to prepare for the driving but also going through a race weekend preparation. It’s what we've done also in the last one [TPC day]. So that programme is going to continue.
“When thinking about an opportunity at Williams, for example, we opted to continue with our programme. We're continuing to educate Kimi, finishing with another FP1 session and then doing Abu Dhabi [the post-season test] and taking it from there. The more kilometres you do, especially in a car that is not great, is going to get him 15-20 days under the belt, and that's important.”
There was also the option of trying to place Antonelli at Williams for a longer stint, but Wolff is aware that Russell spent too long there given he had three seasons racing for the team before his full-time promotion to a Mercedes seat.
“George was maybe too long at Williams,” said Wolff. “[He] did some of the mistakes at Williams, where he was not so visible. Now we fast tracked Kimi, the mistakes are going to be more visible because it's in a Mercedes. But we're absolutely ready for that investment.”
Why did Antonelli himself change his mind?
Antonelli admitted last month that he wasn’t sure he was ready for promotion to F1 next year. The obvious question was what had changed, to which he had a clear answer based on a step made in recent TPC running.
“In that period of time, I’ve been doing some TPCs and I’ve seen some major improvements, I’ve been feeling much better in the car,” said Antonelli. “I have to say one of my weakest points was the long runs and in the last few TPCs I've been improving that a lot. And I think also because I was feeling much better with the car, also with all the procedures, [that] made me change my mind.
“Of course, I still have so much to learn: learning how to deal with a full race weekend - I think yesterday was the proof – and still managing all the procedures, not only on the steering wheel but also starts. So yes, still so much to learn, but every time I go in the car I feel much better."
Wolff has repeatedly mentioned the sheer speed and ability of Antonelli as being something that can’t be trained, but Russell also offered his perspective on the learning curve the 18-year-old is on.
“I've always believed that you gain a lot of the time with experience, in terms of how to deal with a race weekend, the tyres, the team,” said Russell. “But I don't believe I'm any faster today on raw pace than I was when I was 17 years old. You’ve either got the speed or you don't have the speed, and Kimi absolutely has the speed; he's proven that in all of his categories.
“There will be mistakes on the way, as there were for all of us. I think every single driver on the grid in Formula 1 in their first couple of seasons made very visual mistakes and that's going to be obviously highlighted more for any driver who's at the front of the field.
“But Kimi's exceptionally fast and I've got no doubt he's going to be really keeping me on my toes next year. I'm really looking forward to seeing what we can do together from next year onwards.”
Will he pinch Doohan's number?
Antonelli ran number 12 in FP1 yesterday and intends to use it next year. While the team stresses this is subject to FIA confirmation and Alpine's rookie signing Jack Doohan had originally intended to take the number it appears this has changed, leaving it free for Antonelli.
Although Antonelli is using #4 in Formula 2 this year, he ran #12 when he won the European and Middle East Formula Regional Championships last year and on his way to the Italian and German F3 crowns in 2022. He even used #12 for his one-off outing in Italian GT in 2023.
“I have many numbers that I like, but 12 is a special one,” said Antonelli. “I’ve been using it since F4, so always went well with #12. So no reason to change it for next year.”
