Andrea Kimi Antonelli is only six rounds into his Formula 1 career, yet the Mercedes rookie scored his first pole position for the Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix on Friday.
The 18-year-old has enjoyed a record-breaking start to his F1 career since Mercedes elected to promote their academy product Antonelli to replace Lewis Hamilton. Now, the Italian has even added a new record to his fledgling CV as the youngest pole-sitter in Formula 1 history.
Antonelli has shattered the previous record Sebastian Vettel secured, albeit one he set for a Grand Prix rather than an F1 Sprint. The German was 21 years, two months and 11 days old when Vettel took pole for the 2008 Italian Grand Prix while Antonelli is three years younger.
Jenson Button ‘didn’t expect’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli to get F1 Sprint pole at the Miami GP
Mercedes already saw Antonelli beat Max Verstappen’s record as F1’s youngest race leader by just three days at 18 years and 224 days old. He is even the third-youngest driver to start a Formula 1 Grand Prix, but Jenson Button was not sure what kind of driver Mercedes hired.
Button admits he did not expect to see the Bologna boy thrive in his rookie F1 season after Antonelli crashed on his F1 weekend debut at Monza last year. Mercedes gave him a run in George Russell’s car in FP1 for the Italian Grand Prix, but he had a 52G crash at Parabolica.
READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats
| POS | DRIVER | AGE | TEAM | RACE (RESULT) |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | 17 years, 180 days | Toro Rosso | 2015 Malaysian GP (P7) |
| 2 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 18 years, 208 days | Mercedes | 2025 Australian GP (P4) |
| 3 | Lance Stroll | 18 years, 225 days | Williams | 2017 Canadian GP (P9) |
| 4 | Oliver Bearman | 18 years 306 days | Ferrari | 2024 Saudi Arabian GP (P7) |
| 5 | Lando Norris | 19 years, 138 days | McLaren | 2019 Bahrain GP (P6) |
Now, six rounds into his first season as a full-time driver in the car that seven-time champion Hamilton ditched to join Ferrari, Antonelli has his first pole for the F1 Sprint at the Miami GP. And Button has been ‘blown away’ by the form Antonelli has registered already this season.
Button said on Sky Sports F1 (02/05, 22:27): “It’s lovely to see. All year long, he’s been fast and he’s been just behind George. And I didn’t expect that here. That was unbelievable. To put it on pole for the Sprint race? Whoa. That’s a special moment in his time.
“It’s funny, actually. We saw him last year with the incident in Monza, and that’s what I thought of Kimi Antonelli. Unbelievably quick but on the edge the whole time. Then he comes to the 2025 season and he’s completely different to the driver I thought he was.
“He’s calm, he’s collected [and] he’s slowly going about his business, slowly progressing. Always there, as well. Scoring points in every race? That’s not what you do as a new driver.
“You make mistakes and maybe he has, but you haven’t really seen them. So, his consistency is what’s blown my mind and he’s gone, ‘Boom!’, and given us the speed, as well.”
Jenson Button was not alone in expecting less from Andrea Kimi Antonelli in his rookie season
Button is not alone in expecting to see less from Antonelli in his rookie F1 term at Mercedes. Martin Brundle expected Mercedes would be a ‘one-horse team’ through Russell whilst the Bologna boy gets settled in, having predicted Antonelli would make mistakes due to his age.
Yet, after Mercedes gave Antonelli 10,000km in private F1 tests to prepare for his debut, the Italian has been a bright star. The only poor weekend on his CV so far came when Juan Pablo Montoya predicted Antonelli would beat Russell in Bahrain, but came P11 to the Briton’s P2.
The season-opening Australian Grand Prix even showed Antonelli at his best on his debut as Mercedes saw their driver academy product charge from P16 on the grid to finish P4 in very tricky conditions. He bowed out in Q1 in Melbourne after damaging his floor on the T6 kerb.
