Much has been made of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and the rigorous preparations he’s undertaken to get ready for his Formula 1 debut.
Mercedes had an important choice to make when Lewis Hamilton opted to swap the Silver Arrows for Ferrari ahead of the 2025 F1 season.
Team principal Toto Wolff had plenty of options available to him but opted for potential over experience.
Kimi Antonelli will make his Formula 1 debut at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix with George Russell by his side and five more rookies on the grid.
The six rookies could be split into two groups, with Antonelli and Red Bull’s new driver Liam Lawson in potentially race-winning cars, and the other drivers likely to be scrapping over top-10 finishes.
Each of these drivers has a different level of experience when it comes to F1, as Lawson, Oliver Bearman (Haas) and Jack Doohan (Alpine) have all already made their debuts.
Antonelli has done thousands of kilometres of testing, much more than Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) have managed.
A report from The Objective has shared more details about one of Antonelli’s tests at the Red Bull Ring, home of the Austrian Grand Prix.
It turns out that even during a private run when he wasn’t competing against anybody else, he was still pushing the car to ridiculous speeds.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli faster than Pierre Gasly during private Mercedes test
The report suggests that Antonelli – who was just 17 at the time – organised a private test at Red Bull’s home circuit in the middle of April last year.
This was more than two months before the F1 paddock descended on the circuit, but allowed Antonelli to learn more about Mercedes’ cars and the track itself.
The report suggests that Antonelli reached 319 km/h (198.2mph), a staggering speed on F1’s shortest track.
READ MORE: Alpine driver Pierre Gasly’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
When compared to the fastest speeds of every driver during qualifying for last year’s race, Antonelli only outpaced Alpine star Pierre Gasly (318km/h).
However, this feat is much more impressive than it sounds.
It has to be noted that Antonelli wouldn’t have been in a 2024 Formula 1 car due to testing restrictions, meaning he was in a less powerful Mercedes.
He’s also comparing himself to the top speeds of each F1 driver during qualifying when their cars are perfectly tuned to be as fast as possible over one lap.
It highlights Antonelli’s fearlessness and propensity to push everything to the limit regardless of the situation.
Kimi Antonelli ‘raised eyebrows’ with FP1 at Monza despite Italian Grand Prix crash
Antonelli was a name that many Formula 1 fans had heard ahead of his FP1 debut at Monza but wouldn’t have seen in action unless they followed Formula 2.
What they witnessed was a driver willing to push the car to the limits immediately and then finding the barriers on his second flying lap.
Antonelli’s data compared to Hamilton’s explained his crash, but it wasn’t a completely negative experience for the Italian despite the 52G crash.
READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats
The report from The Objective went on to say that Antonelli’s short stint on track ‘raised eyebrows’ with analysts.
They saw the youngster find a rhythm and reach speeds that is ‘not typical’ of a rookie and tend to take ‘dozens of hours of training’.
Antonelli will be well aware of his own potential by looking at the data but will also know that he needs to smooth out a lot of the edges in his technique and racecraft before he’s capable of challenging those at the very front of the grid.
But the initial signs are very position for the 18-year-old and Mercedes will be very excited about his prospects.
Leave feedback about this