Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been the main topic of discussion across the 2024 Formula 2 season.
The Italian sensation has had a meteoric rise up the ranks in motorsport as he embarks on his debut season in Formula 2 with PREMA.
Antonelli was brought through to the category by Mercedes and has been subsequently linked with the vacant seat in Formula 1 ever since seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton announced he would be moving to Ferrari in 2025.
Speaking on the Track Limits podcast, Hitech Grand Prix technical director Christophe Perrin gave his thoughts on Antonelli before the F2 season and if he could handle the pressure of making the step up.
Christophe Perrin labelled Andrea Kimi Antonelli as a ‘pure talent’
Antonelli and Estonian talent Paul Aron both joined the Mercedes Junior Team in 2019, but only the former was brought through by the team to Formula 2 for this season.
Despite not winning a championship, Aron had a fairly successful junior heading in F2, with third place finishes in Italian F4 in 2019, the Formula Regional European Championship in 2021 and 2022, and Formula 3 last season.
However, Aron was axed by Mercedes in November last year and the Silver Arrows brought through Antonelli to F2 by skipping over F3 after he won the Formula Regional titles in Europe and the Middle East in 2023.
The 17-year-old was signed to PREMA alongside Oliver Bearman, and Perrin expressed how ‘impressive the Italian was in his previous championships, but wondered if he could cope with the pressure placed on him.
“To be honest with you, it’s quite difficult for me to really speak about him because I followed him in go- karts because I was helping a kid at this moment in go-karts, and he was already quite impressive,” he said.
“I know that in the junior formulae, in F4 and in Formula Renault (now Formula Regional, or FRECA) last year, he made a really impressive job as a rookie. Basically, I think in F4, he won three championships in his first year in the single-seater. He seems to be a pure talent. His tests in F2 last year in Abu Dhabi were quite impressive. He was very close to Bearman at the end of the first day already.
“So, definitely, he’s a pure talent, but he’s only 18 and we don’t know how the kid will develop.
“For sure he has a structure around him with Mercedes, with Toto [Wolff] being there around him. He’s in PREMA which we all know is one of the best teams. So he has all the environment around him to be able to be successful.
“Now he has to deliver and now he’s in a position where he has never been before because now he has the pressure and to be able to deliver when you have the pressure is different as well when nobody expects you to succeed.
“So it’s another part of the of the challenge that we need to learn and will see if the kid is really a special one or not.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has enjoyed a solid first season in Formula 2
Despite a shaky start to the campaign, Antonelli is now starting to deliver the results that many questioned, including Perrin, whether he could achieve in F2.
Finishing 14th on debut in the sprint race in Bahrain, Antonelli went on to score points in all but one of the next nine races, which included three fourth-place finishes.
The 17-year-old failed to score points in Spain and Austria, but at Silverstone, he registered his first win in F2 in the sprint race.
Antonelli claimed his second win of the season in Hungary in the feature race and currently sits seventh in the drivers’ standings with 87 points.