Mercedes raised a few eyebrows when it fast-tracked its junior phenom Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Formula 1 debut to replace Lewis Hamilton. For a teenager who had only made his first tentative steps in single-seater racing in 2021 and had skipped the F3 level altogether, the challenge doesn’t get much bigger than representing a top team and stepping in a seven-time world champion’s shoes – even if Mercedes was keen to play down its expectations of the 19-year-old.
It did Antonelli and Mercedes a world of good, then, when the Italian took fourth on his Melbourne debut and backed that up with sixth in China and a pole in the Miami sprint. But Antonelli’s youthful inexperience did catch up to him when F1 headed back to Europe and Mercedes introduced an unsuccessful suspension update that derailed both Antonelli and high-flying team-mate George Russell. And while Russell had enough experience to deal with the setback, it sent Antonelli into a tailspin.
The ill-fated Imola update coincided with Antonelli’s home debut, hailing from nearby Bologna, and he admitted to feeling drained by the increased attention and scrutiny that would be a feature of the busy European paddocks.
“I had a very long, difficult period in Europe,” Antonelli said when quizzed by Motorsport.com in Abu Dhabi on his many ups and downs in 2025. “I even started to doubt myself and I was also afraid that I wouldn’t have been able to get out of it.
“During that difficult period, I lost my direction a little. There was a lot of frustration, and I started thinking too much about the final result. Every time I got in the car, I put a lot of pressure on myself and didn’t focus on driving well.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Monza weekend proved to be a tough one
Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Monza weekend proved to be a tough one
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff had to show tough love at times, particularly after a poor weekend in Monza in which Antonelli crashed in FP2 and then looked too scared to make another mistake and drove well under the limit. Antonelli revealed that he had a post-race debrief in Italy with Wolff and race engineer Pete Bonnington, after which he told himself to “reset and start from scratch.”
By that stage, however, a maiden podium in Canada was just one of several signs of Antonelli’s class – too many to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Antonelli did bounce back from Baku onwards, and as Mercedes’ performances stabilised so did Antonelli’s rookie season, starting to deliver cleaner weekends that began yielding big points finishes. His best-ever result arrived in Brazil when he finished second behind Lando Norris, and McLaren’s Las Vegas disqualifications moved him up to third in the grand prix.
If 2025 was supposed to be a crash course for Antonelli on how to become a well-rounded F1 driver, in time to start the 2026 regulations era on the front foot, then one could consider it mission accomplished.
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