The Formula 1 started in 2025 with the laps dressed in camouflage by Andrea Kimi Antonelli in a Mercedes. It was the 2020 W11, with the German factory respecting the mileage with old cars required by the FIA. But it hid a plan by the team led by Toto Wolff with his pearl. He arrives at the most demanding seat of those that are left free, the one vacated by Lewis Hamilton. And it is no coincidence that the Italian is lapping and lapping.
“We are preparing him for 2026,” Wolff told AMUS. The new regulations are in the spotlight, and the Italian, along with George Russell, will look to lead the Silver Arrows. It is no coincidence that Antonelli continues to accumulate kilometers before his debut at Albert Park in Melbourne. With old cars, that experience in free practice at Monza where he ended up in the wall due to over-optimism and his Formula 2 course where he was far from the title fight with Bortoleto, signed by Sauber, and Hadjar, promoted in the Red Bull system.
“He completed 9,000 kilometers in Formula 1 cars,” said Wolff. That’s about 30 Grands Prix, more or less. Without stopping to lap and assimilate new stimuli with a Mercedes that is committed to novelty when its reference and myth, Lewis Hamilton, decided to leave for Ferrari. To take the legacy of the ’44’ in a team that has only conjugated the verb to win since the arrival of the hybrid era in Formula 1
[Antonelli] has completed 9,000 kilometers in Formula 1 cars
Toto Wolff
Hamilton’s memory
The aim of 2026 is on the horizon, although everyone knows that in F1 the current results are what matters. Wolff, however, takes the pressure off. “If you expect to see him on pole in Australia, to win the race and fight for the title, the risk is great. It won’t happen,” adds the Austrian manager. Although it will go through his head that, obviously, he is not Hamilton. The last big name in F1 who made his debut directly in a top team on the grid. The others have cut their teeth growing up from the midfield: Verstappen (Toro Rosso), Leclerc (Sauber), Sainz (Toro Rosso)… For his part, the Briton made his debut in 2007 with a podium at Albert Park alongside Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso in the first chapter of a season that is motor racing history
I’m not afraid of being judged. I know Mercedes has a clear opinion of me
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
The ballot paper, then, for Antonelli will be huge. “I’m not afraid of being judged. I know Mercedes have a clear opinion of me, and they don’t think negatively about the F2 season. I’m calm, I always try to enjoy it,” said the Italian pearl. A prodigy for his new ‘boss’ Wolff. “He’s a child prodigy. But we’ll wait and see how he goes this year. He’ll be strong, but not at first. It will happen sooner or later,” he concluded.