As for Saturday, it was an impressive day for young Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
And with a decision looming at Mercedes, he has added a significant item to his resume.
Antonelli won the Formula 2 sprint race in rainy wet conditions, leading every lap from reverse pole position to claim his first F2 victory.
The win came amid lingering questions about Mercedes’ second seat on the 2025 F1 grid, and whether Antonelli is ready to make the jump to the highest level of single-seater racing after one season in F2. Antonelli, not yet 18, skipped F3 entirely and is yet to win in F2, despite his already impressive CV making him the leading candidate for the seat vacated by Lewis Hamilton at the end of the season.
That has changed today.
Antonelli’s first F2 victory was announced by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. Dealt with With Antonelli’s “difficult” F2 season over, the door is now open for options beyond the young prodigy for next season.
“Obviously this season has been a little difficult because they weren’t on the same level overall and I think the team knows that. It wasn’t great then but last weekend was pretty good. The pace was there but they made mistakes in the breakaway. So it’s something the rookie has to learn from, that’s obvious,” Wolff said when asked about Antonelli in an interview on Friday. FIA press conference.
“But there’s a lot of pressure on him. There’s a lot of buzz. His track record in junior formula and go-karts is unparalleled. It’s clear the pressure is mounting. But as his father says, champions are thrown into cold water and have to swim. So they understand that very clearly,” Wolff continued. “But the driver market right now is very dynamic and interesting because I think some drivers have more options and some teams have more options too. So it’s interesting. And, you know, Bernie [Ecclestone] “I said, ‘Last week I had an opinion, this week I have a different opinion.'”
Wolff then spoke about how Antonelli is dealing with all the expectations and pressure, and compared him to fellow F2 driver Oliver Bearman, who made headlines this week after Haas announced he will drive full-time in F1 next year.
“What I like about his attitude, especially his family, the people who are always close to him, is that he assesses the situation objectively and decides if it’s good or not good enough. And I don’t think the pressure has at all negatively affected his performance in the car or the way he drives. He’s obviously got a good benchmark with Ollie Bearman,” Wolff said. “They’re pretty close. Ollie obviously had a very good race in Austria and Kimi had a clutch release problem on Sunday in the second race. So he’s got to swim. That’s clear. It’s been a career boom. He’s 17, he doesn’t even have a road car driving licence. And the best ones can deal with that. With the amount of scrutiny and pressure, and it’s going to get even greater.”
If Saturday’s F2 sprint race is any indication, Antonelli is starting to handle the pressure pretty well.
