Mercedes has announced its successor to Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1: the 18-year-old driver Kimi Antonelli will be the new driver

This is how the grid of drivers for 2025 looks like

Mercedes has made official what was widely rumoured: the young 18-year-old driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be the successor to Lewis Hamilton, who in 2025 will end a successful 12-year stint to move to Ferrari. The detail is that the team made the announcement hours after the brutal accident that the Italian driver was involved in in free practice 1 aboard George Russell’s car, in what was his formal debut in Formula 1 in the testing programme that the category set up for different promising drivers to accumulate hours of driving.

Everything seemed to be building towards this announcement. Even though Antonelli had taken Russell’s car off the track and crashed it 10 minutes into practice session number one, team boss Toto Wolff had showered him with praise without reproach for the crash: “What we see is that there is performance, and we have even seen it in the few laps we have seen, but what he did, the car could not cope with it. It is a shame, given an hour to run we would have seen some good performances.”

After the incident, Hamilton also came out in his support: “I said a long time ago that I think he is the one the team should choose in the future. He is one of those young, super talented kids who has come through. I think it would be good for people to remember that he has just turned 18 and that he has a bright future ahead of him.”

Mercedes signed him to its driver academy five years ago, in 2019. Kimi had huge success in karting, with titles in the FIA ​​European Karting Championship and the WSK Euro series, then jumped to single-seaters to take crowns in ADAC and Italian Formula 4 in 2022, the previous step to be the winner of the 2023 Formula Regional European Championship. In 2024, the Italian reached the formal Formula 1 ladder to participate in Formula 2: he won the Silverstone Sprint and the Hungarian Feature Race to place 7th in the Drivers’ Championship, behind the Argentine Franco Colapinto who has just made the jump to F1 to drive for Williams.

“It’s an incredible feeling to be announced as a Mercedes factory driver alongside George for 2025. Coming to F1 is a dream I’ve had since I was a little boy; I want to thank the team for the support they’ve given me in my career so far and the trust they’ve shown in me. I’m still learning a lot, but I feel ready for the opportunity,” the Italian, who turned 18 less than a week ago, declared on the official Mercedes website.

“I’m also really excited to become George’s teammate. He came through the team’s youth programme like me and is someone I have huge respect for. He’s super-fast, has won several Grands Prix and has already helped me improve as a driver. I’m looking forward to learning from him and working together to perform at our best on track,” he added about his new teammate.

Mercedes announced Antonelli as a new driver

“Kimi has consistently demonstrated the talent and speed needed to compete at the very top of our sport. We know it will be another big step up, but he has impressed us in his F1 testing this year and we will support him every step of the way through the learning process. Our new line-up is perfect for opening the next chapter in our story. Our 2025 driver line-up combines experience, talent, youth and sheer speed,” said team boss Toto Wolff.

The leader of the team that has won nine titles in history and is behind Ferrari (15) and McLaren (12) as one of the most successful on that list, revealed that as soon as he learned that Lewis would be leaving for the Prancing Horse he made the decision to promote Antonelli to the main seat: “I made a decision five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me he was going to Ferrari. Obviously, we were discussing other options and we also kept the idea of ​​Max (Verstappen). We didn’t completely rule it out after seeing what happened at Red Bull, but instinctively, that’s the line-up with those two that I always wanted.”

All that remains to be seen is who will be the RB Honda driver who will accompany the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hülkenberg’s teammate at Kick Sauber for the 2025 season.

Mercedes has made a strong bet on young Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Photo: Reuters/Claudia Greco)