Andrea Kimi Antonelli has big shoes to fill in his rookie season having replaced seven-time Formula 1 drivers’ champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in the 2025 campaign.
The Silver Arrows have put their faith in one of their own after promoting Antonelli from F2 into the works Mercedes line-up after seeing Hamilton replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari. It is a huge ask for the Italian, who will become the third-youngest driver in Formula 1 history yet.
Only Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll were younger than Antonelli will be when he debuts for Mercedes at the Australian Grand Prix on March 16. He also steps up to Formula 1 after just one season in F2 which yielded two race wins and four podiums over 26 races last year.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli will ‘hurt’ Mercedes if he keeps crashing as an F1 rookie in 2025
Alex Jacques watched Antonelli’s rookie, and only, season in Formula 2 as the commentator for the world feed. But while the Bologna boy impressed at stages on the back of taking the Formula Regional European and Middle East titles during 2023, he still has room to improve.
The 2022 ADAC and Italian F4 champion also showed he has areas to polish when Antonelli crashed on his F1 weekend debut at Monza. Mercedes put Antonelli in George Russell’s car in FP1 for the 2024 Italian Grand Prix, but the instant crowd favourite found the wall at T11.
READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats
| POS | DRIVER | AGE AT DEBUT | TEAM | RACE |
| 10 | Esteban Tuero | 19 years, 10 months, 14 days | Minardi | 1998 Australian Grand Prix |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | 19 years, 7 months, 3 days | Minardi | 2001 Australian Grand Prix |
| 8 | Ricardo Rodriguez | 19 years, 6 months, 27 days | Ferrari | 1961 Italian Grand Prix |
| 7 | Mike Thackwell | 19 years, 5 months, 29 days | Tyrrell | 1980 Canadian Grand Prix |
| 6 | Lando Norris | 19 years, 4 months, 4 days | McLaren | 2019 Australian Grand Prix |
| 5 | Jaime Alguersuari | 19 years, 4 months, 3 days | Toro Rosso | 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix |
| 4 | Oliver Bearman | 18 years, 10 months, 1 day | Ferrari | 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix |
| 3 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli* | 18 years, six months, 19 days old | Mercedes | 2025 Australian Grand Prix |
| 2 | Lance Stroll | 18 years, 4 months, 25 days | Williams | 2017 Australian Grand Prix |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | 17 years, 5 months, 13 days | Toro Rosso | 2015 Australian Grand Prix |
Antonelli had a 52G impact at Parabolica after losing control of the car on corner entry and spun through the gravel trap. Jacques notes it was also not his only time crashing an F1 car as Mercedes put Antonelli through an extensive testing programme and he must stop now.
“[Antonelli needs to work on] finding the workable limit,” Jacques has told the official F1 website. “FP1 in Monza last year showed the promise and the risk for Antonelli.
“His first push lap was very strong [but] on the second he ended up in the wall. He has also suffered other testing crashes, which is to be expected in the early stages of a career. But it would hurt both [the] team and driver if they continued to happen deep into the season.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has driven 9,000km in Mercedes F1 tests
Antonelli has driven 9,000km in tests Mercedes arranged to prepare the Italian for his debut Formula 1 race in Australia. Yet the extensive circuit time the teenager has recorded has not stopped the offs as Antonelli had an off testing Mercedes’ 2020 car at Jerez to start 2025.
Mercedes will hope that Antonelli refines his craft when the racing actually gets going, like Jacques claims he needs to. But the Silver Arrows will also be confident in their decision to promote the teenager to F1 to replace Hamilton given he was not afraid to push at Monza.
His crash in FP1 for the 2024 Italian GP at Monza was down to Antonelli braking much later than Hamilton for Parabolica. With the pace the Bologna kid had, he was never going to get the car stopped for the last corner. Yet it showed Mercedes that Antonelli feels ready for F1.
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