Kimi Antonelli’s impressive mileage figures ahead of Mercedes debut
To put that into context, Franco Colapinto had one solitary FP1 session under his belt, 24 laps of the Silverstone circuit totalling 141km, before he made his Williams debut at the Italian Grand Prix.
Antonelli may be the youngest rookie lining up on the F1 2025 grid but he’s without a doubt the most well prepared given his extensive Testing Previous Cars [TPC] programme.
The 18-year-old Italian covered laps at the Red Bull Ring, Imola, Silverstone and Barcelona last season, putting in the miles in Mercedes’ F1 cars that were two years or older. He also drove Mercedes’ 2024 car during last year’s FP1 sessions at Monza and Mexico before testing the car in the post-season Abu Dhabi outing.
This week though, he was in Mercedes’ 2020 challenger, the W11, which is a pre-ground-effect aerodynamic car, as of this year Formula 1 has limited the number of TPC days in a two-year-old car to 20. His two-day run at Jerez therefore falls under the Testing of Historic Cars [THC] classification.
Either way, he’s gaining invaluable time in a Formula 1 car with Wolff revealing the impressive mileage he’s covered ahead of his debut campaign.
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“He has completed around 9,000 kilometres in Formula 1 cars,” the team principal told Auto Motor und Sport.
The Austria, however, has warned “shareholders not to believe that the good test results will simply translate into the race.
“If you expect him to be on pole position in Melbourne, win the race and immediately compete for the championship, then the risk is high because that won’t happen.
“If we take the approach that the boy is 18 years old, very talented, but of course has to grow into it first and will make mistakes, then the risk is limited. That’s why we’re doing it. We see 2025 as a transition year and want to prepare him for 2026.”
Asked whether the ‘child prodigy’ tag that has been associated to Antonelli is justfied, Wolff replied: “He will only be a child prodigy when he actually performs in Formula 1. We hope it will happen sooner rather than later, but certainly not right at the beginning.”
Mercedes are one of five teams fielding a rookie driver in the F1 2025 championship, the others including Oliver Bearman at Haas, Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls, Jack Doohan who is with Alpine and Gabriel Bortoleto who has joined Sauber.
“There will be new regulations in 2026,” Wolff explained. “The teams want to prepare for this. That’s why they prefer to train the rookies next year.
“I think one of the triggers was Oliver Bearman’s debut at Ferrari. He gets into the car unprepared, has a free practice session and drives up front. Then Colapinto also hit the ground running. Suddenly everyone realised that the youngsters were starting at a very high level.”
