While everyone’s attention is on Lewis Hamilton and his start to life at Ferrari, his old team Mercedes are quietly going about their business with new driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the wheel.
Ferrari have planned a launch event to officially welcome Lewis Hamilton to the team the day after the F1 75 show in London where each team will show off its livery for the first time.
Mercedes are one of several teams who have opted against launching their car individually, instead waiting until they arrive in Bahrain for pre-season testing.
However, Kimi Antonelli has already been getting up to speed ahead of his Formula 1 debut.
Antonelli took part in a historic Mercedes test running their 2020 car in a camo livery.
The teenager has spent 12 months getting up to speed as much as possible as soon as it was discovered that Hamilton would be leaving the Silver Arrows.
Team principal Toto Wolff explained how much running Antonelli has done in preparation for 2025 but nothing can replicate the feeling of going wheel-to-wheel during a Grand Prix.
Journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm was speaking about Antonelli in the build-up to his debut and explained how he’s already adapted better to one aspect of Mercedes’ modern F1 car than Hamilton or his new teammate George Russell.
How Kimi Antonelli dealt better with Mercedes ground effect F1 cars than Lewis Hamilton
Talking about Antonelli’s preparations, Mitchell-Malm said: “His progression from an F1 perspective over the last year was key.
“He did an awful lot of testing in previous generation Mercedes. I think he started life with a single very brief outing in the 2021 car, just so that he didn’t have the difficulties of the ground effect here in Mercedes straight away.
“But he turned heads at Mercedes with how he adapted to the ground effect cars.
READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats
“And because he didn’t have that kind of ingrained intuitiveness of what the previous generation F1 cars were like, he seemed to respond better to them than the race drivers had, and the feedback wasn’t quite so negative.
“There was also just good progress through the year. Antonelli himself was not relieved necessarily, but more confident in his F1 graduation once he made a step in time management in his private testing outings with Mercedes.
“I feel like that was quite key to making sure that the boxes were being ticked and that he was on the right trajectory.”
Mercedes need to be patient with Kimi Antonelli but he’ll be desperate to make an immediate impact
There’s a chance that Mercedes begin the 2025 Formula 1 season in no man’s land.
The teams at the back of the grid will quickly turn their attention to the new regulations in 2026 and will try to get a head start on their rivals.
Meanwhile, any team with a chance of winning Grand Prix and therefore the title will be more inclined to commit more resources to this year’s car.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 Team from team principal to lineage
There’s a good chance that Mercedes could be trapped in between those two positions, on the cusp of greatness but not close enough to be in contention to win either title.
Wolff has played down Antonelli’s chances at the start of the season but needs to get his and the team’s goals locked in quickly.
He can’t expect the 18-year-old to compete with Ferrari and McLaren if Mercedes decide to shift focus early in the year.
However, if there’s the opportunity to take a step up in 2025, then Antonelli will have to quickly adapt to the additional pressure on him.
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