Italy’s own Kimi, who has grown up in the top organization since he was 11 years old, is required to stop Max Verstappen’s F1 supremacy, writes Urheilu’s Joel Sippola.
Joel Sippola sports reporter
Formula One giant Mercedes is already preparing fast Lewis Hamilton After the F1 career. The 38-year-old star driver has achieved six drivers’ world championships during his 11-season Mercedes career.
In the summer, Hamilton signed an extension contract with the team until 2025. In the top organization, however, the gaze is already clearly further away.
In October, many formula followers shuddered when Mercedes announced the golden nugget of its junior academy Kimi Antonelli making a giant leap in his career. He moved to the F2 series, the closest junior class to the F1 series, and to the top team Prema.
What makes the move exceptional is that Antonelli, who last raced in the Formula Regional class, skipped the F3 series completely in an atypical way for formula breaks. The transfer of the 17-year-old Italian talent to the F2 series has been seen to be precisely the will of Mercedes.
This season, Red Bull and 19 times winner Max Verstappen’s the overshadowed Mercedes once again found a way to shake up the formula world.
Generational talent
Antonelli’s giant leap has attracted a lot of interest. On the other hand, the move has also been seen as a big risk.
The difference to the Formula Regional cars is of course considerable, because in the F2 series they are 100 kilograms heavier. The Race according to the speed difference between the series is 12.5 seconds in favor of the F2 series.
In the case of Antonelli, however, we are talking about a generational talent, the kind that appear in formula one every ten years or so. For him, however, F2 is an intermediate stage on the way to an inevitable F1 career.
At one time, it was considered a risk that Kimi Räikkönen moved to the F1 series with little experience in small formulas. However, the Finn soon drove the top team McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton immediately drove for the championship in his rookie season, even though he had merited as a teammate Fernando Alonso. Max Verstappen’s entry into the series at just 17 years old brought the age limit to 18 years. Now he is a three-time World Cup winner in the sport.
Räikkönen. Hamilton. Verstappen. Antonelli is likely to be the next hyper-talent to be talked about in capital letters in F1. In his case, the F2 series shouldn’t cause any big problems.
Mercedes since the age of 11
Many factors speak for Antonelli’s exceptionality. In small formulas, he has gained a reputation as a driver who has gone from championship to championship in every series.
In 2022, he won both the Italian and German F4 titles at the same time. For his part, this year he first won the Middle East Formula Regional class and in the summer the European series.
Generational talents are also characterized by the fact that they have dazzled with some exceptional driving performance. In the penultimate race of this season in Zandvoort, Holland, Antonelli phenomenally rose from grid eight to the top position in the second round in rainy weather.
Although the huge lead was cut short due to red flags, after the restart he managed a 12-second margin of victory in a few laps. In the rain, the drivers’ driving skills are highlighted, which Antonelli proved in a chilling way.
Something about Antonelli’s talent is said by the fact that Mercedes attached him to their academy when he was only 11 years old. Hamilton entered McLaren’s academy at the age of 13. Although Red Bull took Verstappen into their program “only” at the age of 16, he rose to Formula 1 soon after.
Hamilton’s example in particular proves that junk programs are not play schools. F1 teams know how to smell championship potential at a very early stage. Organizations are ready to seriously invest in these diamonds in the rough. It can be seen now with Antonelli.
Verstappen vs Antonelli
Antonelli will get a tough yardstick in F2, as Prema is driven by Ferrari’s top talent as his teammate, Oliver Bearman. It is believed that he will drive in F1 in the 2025 season.
Mercedes hasn’t immediately put enormous pressure on Antonelli for results. A likely option is for him to drive in F2 for two seasons and join the F1 series in 2026. He would then still only be 19 years old.
However, Antonelli, who quickly adapted to each formula class, has all the conditions to drive for the top positions in the series already in his first F2 season, even for the championship. In that case, he would drive in formula one already in 2025 in a smaller team.
The most delicious scenario, however, is that he would make his F1 debut in 2026, replacing the potentially retired Hamilton at Mercedes. At the same time, Antonelli could become the first driver fighting for the world championship in his rookie season since Hamilton (2007).
With its resources, Mercedes is one of the teams that can create a genuine championship threat for Red Bull. The year 2026 offers the first seam, thanks to the rule reforms.
At the same time, Verstappen, who dominates the F1 series to his heart’s content, would have a challenger of his own stature. I remember how the teenage Verstappen caused a headache with his aggressive driving style for Hamilton, Räikkönen, Sebastian Vettel’s and Nico Rosberg’s for such experienced star drivers.
In the future, the parts will change, when the young, open-minded and fabulously talented Antonelli puts a lot of pressure on Verstappen, who has already become the champion driver of the series and a multiple world champion. So, the former skunk gets a taste of his own medicine.