Andrea Kimi Antonelli has finally started his Formula 1 career with Mercedes after months of waiting.
Once Lewis Hamilton announced his decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari ahead of the 2025 F1 season, everyone was wondering who team principal Toto Wolff would select as his replacement.
Kimi Antonelli was the driver Mercedes decided on, despite Wolff suggesting Carlos Sainz was a candidate, highlighting their belief in the Italian youngster.
Antonelli has done huge amounts of private testing and there have been mixed stories about how he performed.
Juan Pablo Montoya believes Antonelli had a fair few crashes while getting to grips with Mercedes’ F1 cars and his shunt during FP1 brought his first public run to a premature end.
Mercedes decided to give Antonelli the first chance to drive their 2025 F1 car during testing, with teammate George Russell taking over in the afternoon.
Alex Brundle was positioned by turns nine and 10 during the first session of testing and keeping a close eye on the cars driving past him.
He noted that while many looked to be getting to grips with their new cars, he was impressed with what he initially saw from the 18-year-old.
Kimi Antonelli shows his ‘confidence’ with Mercedes 2025 F1 car during pre-season testing
Brundle was speaking on the Sky Sports F1 feed of testing and explained: “So, you see a huge amount of change in the way that the McLaren particularly are set up this year.
“The top wishbone with the stagger at the front end really preventing the dive, as it goes down into the corner, it’s an incredibly aggressive change in the way that McLaren is set up for this season’s racing.
“The kryptonite, though, for that kind of change is a corner like this, because a little bit of a bumpy braking zone down into a very slow apex down at turn 10 before you try and get back on throttle on the run-up to turn 11.
“And drivers are asking the car to do a lot in here, manage the bumps on the way down through turn 10, turn and break as well.
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“It’s really where if you do have the car incredibly stiff, which those changes in geometry for teams like McLaren, it seems like Mercedes are generating that incredibly stiff front end.
“You can really suffer for compliance, so I’ve been checking it on everybody as they head through into turn nine and see how ponderous the various cars look through turn 10.
“Pretty inconclusive so far, I’ll be honest. Antonelli’s definitely hustling in the Mercedes.
“Looks like he’s got a lot of confidence, is able to get really wide out towards that outside white line.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli already attracting attention from rival F1 team bosses
Six drivers are starting their first full Formula 1 season in 2025, but Antonelli is one of two – alongside Liam Lawson – who could potentially be challenging for race wins at the first race in Australia.
Wolff is downplaying expectations on Antonelli at the beginning of his Formula 1 career but the teenager will want to quickly prove why he’s been given this opportunity.
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Christian Horner and Zak Brown have given their verdicts on Antonelli and while they won’t be hoping for another driver to fail, they’ll hope he’s sitting behind their respective drivers this season.
Antonelli looked very smooth on the onboard camera during his time on the track, but nothing could be read into his lap times without knowing what engine modes and run plan he was on.
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