Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari is the biggest story in Formula 1 in 2025, but it’s created plenty of fascinating sub-plots up and down the grid.
The most intriguing of all is at Hamilton’s old team Mercedes where Andrea Kimi Antonelli is being tasked with replacing the sport’s most successful driver.
Hamilton has won 105 Grand Prix during his 17-season Formula 1 career, for context, Antonelli has yet to take part in 105 single-seater races in his life.
The 18-year-old is undoubtedly very talented and has plenty of junior titles to his name.
In 2022 and 2023, Antonelli won five championships, helping him earn enough superlicence points alongside his sixth-place finish in last year’s Formula 2 championship to allow team principal Toto Wolff to call him up to replace Hamilton.
However, his sole F2 campaign didn’t go as well as many were expecting, although Prema’s struggles with a new chassis can be partially blamed, with Antonelli’s teammate and fellow Formula 1 graduate Oliver Bearman also struggling.
Alongside his season in Formula 2, Antonelli completed thousands of kilometres of private testing in old Mercedes cars.
It was a program that Mercedes deliberately accelerated as soon as they discovered that Hamilton would be moving on to join Ferrari.
Speaking on the AS Colombia YouTube channel, former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya was discussing the 18-year-old.
He shared the worrying reports he had heard about Antonelli’s extensive testing schedule that won’t fill many Mercedes fans with much confidence.
Juan Pablo Montoya has heard ‘rumours’ of Kimi Antonelli crashing in Mercedes testing
Montoya was discussing Antonelli’s debut with Elton Julian, the founder of DragonSpeed and a former racing driver himself.
Julian believes that if Mercedes’ car is as competitive as it was last year, then Antonelli needs to be within 30 points of Russell for 2025 to be considered a success.
Montoya then followed this up with his own analysis of Antonelli’s upcoming season and said: “The question is, is Antonelli used to always wanting to win?
“And the rumours of what I’ve heard is that he has crashed a lot in tests, he has done a lot of damage.
READ MORE: Juan Pablo Montoya reveals the advice he gave Andrea Kimi Antonelli ahead of his debut F1 season
“He has done a lot of [damage] because he wants to go too fast.
“Yes, he might lose his mind at the beginning of the year because he’s no longer racing against [his] teammates. Suddenly, he had easy times before and things, but now he is going against someone who is better than what he has experienced before.
“The car is built exactly to what George wants and he is going to have a difficult time.
“If he has the mentality of going out to stay behind George and learn from George and if out of 25 [24] races, in 10 he gets ahead of George, then it’s a good year.
“But, if he wants to go out to dominate George, maybe he will lose his head and the year will become complicated for him.”
Kimi Antonelli widely praised for Mercedes testing performances
Montoya is well connected in the paddock, not just because he drove for McLaren and Wiliams during his racing career.
His son Sebastian Montoya raced in Formula 3 last season, meaning his father was regularly spotted at races.
Montoya’s son is connected to the Red Bull Junior program and will be replacing Antonelli in Prema’s F2 team in 2025.
READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats
It means that the Colombian former driver is likely to be talking to the right people to get an inside look at how Antonelli is performing behind the scenes.
Mercedes engineers have been left impressed by Antonelli’s private outings, and if he wasn’t at the required level, it’s unlikely that the team would have promoted him into such a prominent role in 2025.
Carlos Sainz was linked with Mercedes and would have been a much stronger option if Antonelli wasn’t ready.
Wolff has issued his verdict on Antonelli’s testing performances but ultimately the only thing that matters is how the Italian performs once the season starts.
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