It has been five years since Andrea Kimi Antonelli signed on the dotted line to become one of Mercedes’ few junior drivers.
At the time, he was still karting and would do for two more years – after all, he was aged just 12 at the time!
An ADAC F4 Championship and a Formula Regional European Championship triumph with PREMA would follow, before receiving the opportunity to graduate to Formula 2 this year.
So how has he fared? Oh, and do his performances warrant a drive with Mercedes, one of the premiere Formula 1 seats, for 2025?
Assessing Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s 2024 Formula 2 performances
2024 has notably been one of the most difficult seasons that PREMA has ever faced in Formula 2 with the arrival of a completely different specification of car.
They started the season terribly on the backfoot, with neither of Antonelli or recent Formula 1 graduate Oliver Bearman managing to qualify higher than 18th.
It hasn’t improved much since, with Bearman sitting 15th in the championship and Antonelli seventh.
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That’s slightly misleading, since Bearman pulled out of the Formula 2 event in Saudi Arabia, where he was set to start from pole position in the Feature Race but had to drive for Ferrari in the Formula 1 event instead.
But Antonelli has enjoyed the fair share of PREMA’s success this season, most impressively taking a dominant win in the Hungary Feature Race.
He’s slowly getting to grips with his machinery, and at the right time too, as a Formula 1 opportunity with Mercedes beckons.
Does Antonelli deserve a top Formula 1 drive?
The Italian driver would be aged just 18 at the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season if he were to sign for Mercedes – which is an almost unprecedented step for such a raw driver.
Only Lewis Hamilton comes to mind when thinking about drivers who have been thrusted straight into a top team in their rookie Formula 1 season.
Last year’s Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire and this year’s current leader by 36 points do not have drives for the 2025 season currently, including with any of the smaller or slower teams on the grid.#
So, has Antonelli done enough to prove that he is ready and deserves a drive with the Silver Arrows for next season, despite only sitting seventh in the Formula 2 championship?
That’s hard to tell, but his Hungary dominance showed a flash of how special his talents could be.
Mercedes want to find their answer to Max Verstappen, and if they’d like a long-term solution, then Andrea Kimi Antonelli may be their man.
But they will have to accept first that it may take time for him to get up to speed before signing him, and he will want to continue to improve throughout the rest of the Formula 2 season to show them that his trajectory is headed in the right direction.