Andrea Kimi Antonelli is just a few weeks away from making his Formula 1 debut for Mercedes at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix.
F1 fans have already seen a glimpse of Kimi Antonelli during two FP1 sessions that he took part in last year.
His first outing was the definition of a glimpse, with the 18-year-old putting George Russell’s Mercedes in the barrier on his second flying lap at the Italian Grand Prix.
The British driver wasn’t particularly impressed when he stood in the garage and watched Antonelli fly into the gravel trap at the Parabolica but Mercedes made the relevant repairs quickly enough that it didn’t impact his race weekend.
Antonelli’s run in FP1 in Mexico City was much more conservative, but the vast majority of his preparations for 2025 have taken place behind closed doors.
Team principal Toto Wolff admitted that Antonelli had done a huge number of miles in private Mercedes outings over the past 12 months, once it was discovered that Lewis Hamilton would be heading to Ferrari.
Ultimately, expectations won’t be high on Antonelli, to begin with, given his lack of experience compared to Russell.
However, in an interview with Sport.de, the 18-year-old shared his thoughts on his new teammates and whether or not he believes he can beat them during his debut season.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli shares whether he can beat new Mercedes teammate George Russell in 2025
Antonelli was asked about his relationship with Russell and said: “I’m looking forward to working with him. He’s a great driver.
“We’ve gotten along really well so far. I can learn a lot from him and get even better as a result.”
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The young Italian was then asked if he thought he could beat Russell in 2025 and continued: “Hopefully! But he’s a really good driver, it won’t be easy.”
Russell had a very strong 2024 and finished the campaign with more points than Hamilton.
Only Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button have previously won head-to-head battles with Hamilton over the course of a Formula 1 season.
It means that Antonelli has his work cut out in 2025, but closing the gap to the British driver as quickly as possible has to be the aim at the start of the season, particularly if the Silver Arrows have managed to fix the consistency issue that has plagued their vehicles over recent years.
Kimi Antonelli can take inspiration from Lewis Hamilton ahead of his debut F1 season
If Antonelli does want to beat Russell in 2025, then Hamilton is one of the drivers he should look to.
The 40-year-old made his F1 debut in 2007 and did extensive private testing similar to Antonelli.
He was up against Fernando Alonso at McLaren that year, a reigning back-to-back world champion who had just left Renault in pursuit of his third title.
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While it took Hamilton a couple of races to get up to speed, he finished level on points with the Spaniard and only missed out on winning the championship by a single point to Kimi Raikkonen.
Alonso tried to sabotage Hamilton’s season at the Hungarian Grand Prix that year and Wolff will hope that he doesn’t have a deal with a similar situation between Russell and Antonelli.
However, if the Italian ends up being as fast as many within Mercedes believe he can be, then Russell will have to watch his back sooner rather than later.
