Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?

Andrea Kimi Antonelli made headlines during the F1 Miami weekend when he became the youngest driver to claim pole for a sprint race.

The 18-year-old Italian has borne the weight of massive expectation since it was announced last year that he would replace Ferrari-bound seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.

For Mercedes boss Toto Wolff this is a vindication of faith and, to some extent, a historic righting of wrongs: back in 2014 Mercedes failed to snare Max Verstappen and he fell into the clutches of rival outfit Red Bull.

Motorsport.com understands Wolff even feels that, had Verstappen been under his wing as Antonelli is now, the outbursts and incidents that have accompanied Max’s career would have been reduced in number, if not eliminated altogether.

Wolff signed Antonelli – the son of GT racer Marco Antonelli, who owns AKM Motorsport racing team and has a ‘tough guy’ reputation in motorsport circles – back in 2018 when he was just 12. A development programme with F1 as the ultimate destination followed, with Wolff now considered a firm friend of the Antonelli family.

As a multiple karting champion, Antonelli stepped up to car racing in Formula 4 in 2021 – winning the Italian and ADAC championships the following year. Then in 2023 and just his first season, Antonelli won the Formula Regional European championship that F1 teams have come to view as the best breeding ground for future driving success, as well as its Middle East variation.

Mercedes opted to skip the F3 step on the F1 support bill and place Antonelli directly in Formula 2 for 2024 – with the intention for the famously precarious championship to stop his ‘winning easy’ streak.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Racing

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

The plan was for this to be a two-year project – but then Hamilton’s defection to Ferrari turbocharged the pace of Antonelli’s F1 graduation.

“I made up my mind five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me that he was going,” Wolff eventually said of his decision to partner Antonelli with George Russell for 2025.

But, in any case, Mercedes was more interested in how Antonelli delivered in its Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) programme than his F2 results in a 2024 campaign made harder by his Prema team struggling initially with the championship’s new car.

Antonelli’s TPC programme utilised both 2021 and 2022 Mercedes F1 cars. Before his first in the former, the illustrious W12, he made sure to memorize all 30 staff members required to run the car in the test at the Red Bull Ring. Both sides took this rise extremely seriously.

A further sensible exercise in testing Super Formula machinery late in 2024 – specifically to learn the Suzuka track – was scuppered by illness that also severely impacted Antonelli’s final F2 round in Abu Dhabi last year.

Since taking to the cockpit of a current Formula 1 car in the 2025 season, Antonelli has very much lived up to Wolff’s projected performance trajectory. He has been close enough to Russell on qualifying and race pace to avoid the kind of negative publicity which attended Liam Lawson’s ill-fated outings for Red Bull.

Some of his races have had a harum-scarum quality at times but that is becoming part and parcel of his appeal.

“This young guy – just a few years ago, he was standing next to me in the garage, eyes wide, taking it all in,” Wolff told Servus TV in Miami.

“It feels like that was only yesterday. And now, the speed he’s showing is incredible. He doesn't even know the [Miami] track yet, this was the next big step. It may only be a ‘mini pole’, but you’ve got to take it when it comes.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Mercedes-Benz

“There were a lot of voices, even within the sport, suggesting he should have a preparation year at Williams or somewhere similar.

“But for us it was clear: we wanted to give him that year of preparation within our own team, so that he’d be ready for next year when the new regulations come in.

“We were willing to take that risk even if it meant mistakes. And now we’re being rewarded for our courage. We always said there would be mistakes.

“But he’s kept developing steadily and hasn’t made those errors, though they will come at some point. But the mileage he’s put in is now paying off, and that’s what’s allowing him to perform at this level.”

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