Andrea Kimi Antonelli is known to be a prodigy behind the wheel, and Mercedes, especially Toto Wolff, the star team’s director, wants to make him the new Max Verstappen. No small feat. Since March 14, at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, we also know that the 18-year-old knows how to overcome a setback like the one he suffered in the first qualifying session of the year.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has exceeded all expectations so far.
Then, he couldn’t get past the first qualifying round (Q1), which sent him to the back of the grid for the race. This was very bad news, and even worse considering that he was the only one of the four rookies who didn’t make it through the first cut, despite driving the most competitive car of them all.
However, the next day, on a stormy day, and never better said, the new Italian hope found a crack to squeeze through, a tiny hole that led him to snake his way through the pack and dodge all the walls that surround the Albert Park circuit, advancing to fourth place (finishing fifth due to a penalty).
As such, it had been a decade since anyone had made a debut as prolific as Antonelli’s in Australia. With this fourth-fifth place finish, he surpasses Felipe Nasr’s fifth place in 2015, and in the recent history of Formula 1, there are only three debuts better than the Italian’s. Kevin Magnussen in 2014 and Jacques Villeneuve in 1996 finished second in their first F1 race. For his part, Lewis Hamilton finished third in Australia in 2007 and tasted what it was like to be on the podium in his first race in the Grand Circus.
Antonelli’s records in Australia and Japan
From then on, everything went smoothly, and never better said. Antonelli’s feat is a breath of fresh air for Wolff, who took a gamble on him after Hamilton’s departure to Ferrari and in the face of reservations from quite a few Mercedes members, who considered his promotion to be hasty.
During the last winter, the youngster racked up miles behind the wheel of cars from a couple of years ago, in training sessions that impressed many of those present. He was a regular sight at Silverstone, where he spent more than a day practicing approaching the garage and changing tires, a maneuver that initially proved difficult for him.
What also stood out above all else was his ability to read races like the one in Japan at the most difficult moment. When it started to rain and the McLarens went out in front, Antonelli was one of the first to come in to change tires, and in that move, where teams like Ferrari lost a world, he climbed many positions.
And Antonelli’s role becomes even more important when you look at the rest of the rookies. Apart from the Italian, probably only Oliver Bearman and Hadjar will be in consistent points positions in the next few races, at least as we have seen in the first four races of the year.
A maturity rarely seen at 18 years of age
What Antonelli is doing is also making history within the Mercedes team, which took a big gamble on this young man, who has delivered. Without intending to, according to the driver, he managed to set the fastest lap in the race in Japan when, on lap 50, he stopped the clock at 1:30:965, taking advantage of the clean air afforded by running at the front with medium tires still at an optimal performance level. He was surprised when no other driver was able to break 1:31 in the remaining laps of the race.
Therefore, at just 18 years of age, Kimi Antonelli is facing one of the biggest challenges of his career at the pinnacle of motorsport… and he is doing so with a maturity rarely seen before. Since his debut, the Bologna native has scored points in each of the four races held to date.
So much so that these results place Antonelli in sixth place in the Drivers’ Championship with 30 points, just ahead of Hamilton and his Ferrari and only two points behind Leclerc. With those 30 points, he has helped Mercedes, thanks also to the good performance of George Russell, to occupy second place in the constructors’ standings.