‘Mercedes picked me for 2025 F1 season before I’d even raced in F2’

Kimi Antonelli has given new insight into how Mercedes handled Lewis Hamilton’s departure ahead of the 2025 Formula 1 campaign.

On 1 February 2024, it was announced that Hamilton was going to leave his longtime Mercedes squad to join Ferrari from the 2025 season onwards.

The move was a direct consequence of Mercedes not giving the seven-time world champion a firm contract for 2025 – the two-year deal starting from 2024 featured escape clauses that Hamilton was able to use. But the reason for those terms was team principal Toto Wolff’s keenness not to let Antonelli slip through his fingers the way Max Verstappen had a decade prior.

Still, promoting the Italian youngster to the team was far from a no-brainer. When Wolff found out about Hamilton’s exit, days before it was announced, the 17-year-old was yet to race in F1’s main two feeder series.

Antonelli’s racing record was evidence of his tremendous potential – titles in Italian F4, ADAC F4, Formula Regional Middle East and Formula Regional Europe over his first two years in single-seaters – but bypassing F3 to jump straight to F2 already was a tall order.

Yet, Antonelli has revealed in SAP’s latest Significant Figures video that Wolff had openly made him his favourite to join George Russell at Mercedes as early as January – even before the Hamilton news officially came out.

“I was in Silverstone, and I was testing Formula 3 to learn the track because I was going to race there with Formula 2,” Antonelli narrated.

“And I remember at the end of the day, Toto called me over to his office. And already there, I was a bit confused because I’m like, it doesn’t really happen, you know?

“So, I got into his office. Obviously, it’s Toto, there’s Rosa [Herrero Venegas, senior PR manager] – she’s the one helping me during race weekends.

“Toto, first of all, didn’t waste any time – went straight to the point. This was even before Lewis was announced to Ferrari.

“So, he said, ‘Look, Lewis is going to Ferrari, and we were thinking to put you in the car for next year’. And I’m like, ‘Whoa!’, my eyes were like wide open.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’, because I hadn’t even started F2. So, I had still so much to prove – so much to prove that I could earn that spot. And Toto was already talking about it!

“I was like, ‘OK’. And he was like, ‘Well, if the opportunity comes, will you be ready?’, and I said, ‘Yeah, I mean, I’ve got to be ready’. But of course, then the team also helped me because they made me do testing with the Formula 1 [car].”

Antonelli had a scrappy F2 campaign – as Wolff did expect from such an inexperienced driver – but still took a couple of race victories and was officially announced as a Mercedes F1 driver on 31 August, as he lay seventh in the F2 standings.

Even then, he could hardly believe it. “Actually, I was extremely happy, but at the same time, it was such a big thing for me that it took me a while to realise what has just happened,” Antonelli added. “And I remember lying on this sunbed in the terrace, just staring at the sky because I was just trying to process what has just happened.”

“I let the pressure destroy me”

Despite Antonelli’s obvious potential, Wolff never shied away from the fact that his promotion to Mercedes had been rushed by Hamilton’s unexpected exit. The rookie’s 2025 season was unsurprisingly up-and-down, as he took fourth on debut in Melbourne and scored a maiden F1 podium in Montreal, but went on to collect just three points at European circuits. This hardship took a toll on his mental health at the time.

Asked about coping with pressure from the expectation and belief people had in him, Antonelli replied: “Mostly last year I felt this, because obviously I had a good start of the season. Then I had a difficult period, European season, where I really struggled.

“And in that moment, I let the pressure like kind of destroy me as well during that period, because I felt like I was letting down so many people who had believed in me. Of course, especially Toto, because he was the main one who took the decision. And obviously I didn’t feel good in that period, you know, I wasn’t doing well.

George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

“But then obviously I had a big meeting with the team after the European season and it kind of allowed me to reset and just start again. I slowly found my way back, and then I had a good second half of the season.

“Being able to overcome those difficult moments gave me the confidence ahead of this year and also made me learn a lot about myself, not only as a driver but as a person as well.

“In that European season, probably, most of the things that I did didn’t help me at all. I’ve learned about how my body responds to those moments, how my brain responds, what helps myself to get back into the right focus, the right mindset, what helps me to stay 100% in terms of energy during the whole weekend, how to manage myself with events, obviously the driving and everything. So I’ve learned a lot about myself and how as well to respond to difficult moments.”

The contrast couldn’t be starker between 2025-spec Antonelli and the driver who is now leading the world championship after winning five grands prix in a row – a feat nobody has achieved without winning the world title.

Asked how steep the learning curve had been and how overwhelming it had felt, Antonelli admitted: “Big time. I was so drained at the end of the year.

“Obviously the team did an incredible job on trying to protect me. But the learning curve – I think I learned much more than if I had gone in a smaller team. I felt the learning curve was incredible. It felt like doing three years at once. And it was overwhelming, physically, mentally, because I made so many new experiences as well.

“And also doing a full F1 season for the first time, you don’t really know where you’re going, what you’re about to face. Because obviously the year prior to F1, I’d been doing race-shadowing and everything, but it’s not the same, obviously. And because when I was doing shadowing, I was watching, I wasn’t there on track doing the job.

“So I felt very overwhelmed at the end of the year. And it was good to have a bit of a break to just have a bit of time to analyse and reflect on the year and understand what were the good things and why, and why some things went not in the right way.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team