Kimi Antonelli to be Mercedes’ second driver in 2025
Andrea Kimi Antonelli will join Mercedes in 2025 alongside George Russell, becoming the youngest driver on the grid. He is the second Prema driver to be promoted this year, after Oliver Bearman who joins Haas.
The young Italian prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli, currently a member of the Mercedes Junior Team, will make his Formula 1 debut in 2025 as an official driver for the team. At only 18 years old, he will be the youngest driver on the grid next year. He joins George Russell to form the Mercedes driver duo. This information, revealed by the Italian media Autosprint at the beginning of August, has sparked great interest in the paddock. The Italian thus becomes the second driver from the Prema team to earn a promotion to Formula 1 this year, after his current teammate Oliver Bearman who will join Haas.
Kimi Antonelli’s arrival at Mercedes comes at the right time for the team, which has regained solid performance this season. With a fourth place in the constructors’ championship, Toto Wolff’s team is dangerously close to Ferrari in third position. The consecutive victories of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell before the summer break have made the car one of the most competitive since winning the world championship in 2020. The vacant seat at Mercedes was one of the most sought after in the transfer market.
This news also means that a driver currently involved will have to leave the discipline. At the moment, no information has been shared about whether Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, or Logan Sargeant will give up their seat. But at least two of them will announce their departure officially.
The young driver, who will finish the season at Prema in Formula 2, recently expressed doubts about his preparation for Formula 1. However, after several free practices and a first victory in Formula 2 at the Silverstone Grand Prix, his confidence seems to have increased slightly. And Mercedes is ready to give him this opportunity. Toto Wolff, team principal at Mercedes, had already hinted that he considered Andrea Kimi Antonelli as the ideal candidate for this position. The announcement was therefore not a surprise.
With a majority of the grid now complete and the end of the season approaching, the final grid should not be long in being announced. A transfer market that seems to have regained some of its dynamism after the official arrival of Carlos Sainz at Williams.
