Andrea Kimi Antonelli will become the youngest driver on the Formula 1 grid next season as he joins George Russell at Mercedes.
The Italian driver has enjoyed a superb junior career, winning championships back-to-back in Italian F4 and FRECA before moving to Formula 2.
Antonelli will be under pressure to deliver from the outset at the Australian Grand Prix, after being parachuted into a team expected to challenge for victories.
He has been very impressive during his Formula 2 campaign for PREMA, driving to two victories after taking the unorthodox route to the series, skipping FIA F3.
Some F1 drivers, such as Fernando Alonso, have raced in the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with varying levels of success.
Antonelli explained to the official F2 website that he would prefer to race at Le Mans over the Indy 500, although both races are significant.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli would prefer to race at Le Mans as he is ‘not really keen’ to compete at the Indy 500
Both races are very different disciplines and the two events are incredibly difficult to win, even for drivers that have raced in Formula 1.
The Indy 500 is tricky to master, especially for European drivers who didn’t grow up with ovals in their junior careers.
Alonso attempted the event three times and performed well in 2017 before retiring but endured the agony of getting bumped out of the field two years later. The two-time F1 world champion explained that Alonso is unlikely to return to race at the Indy 500.
Le Mans is slightly easier to adjust to as it is a circuit rather than an oval, although managing traffic and racing at night can be unpredictable.
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Antonelli explained he would prefer to race at Le Mans in his career as he feels more at home while racing on a circuit.
He said: “Both are really important. The biggest races in history are Le Mans, Indy 500, Monaco, so I would say 24 Hours. I don’t really like ovals and obviously it’s a really cool event, but I’ve never tried ovals to be honest and I am not really keen to try it at the moment.
“Not saying it’s easy because I have asked some drivers and they say it’s really hard, because you have to be really smooth with your input because as soon as you do too much movement you can lose too much time, so obviously it’s really tough. A proper race track is better for me, so Le Mans.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli could race at Le Mans later in his career
A lot of Formula 1 drivers have competed at Le Mans later in their careers, including Alonso, who won twice with Toyota before returning to F1.
Other drivers, such as Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi, have also won the race after competing in F1 and transitioned seamlessly.
More F1 drivers are also starting to branch out into other championships, and Max Verstappen has expressed an interest in racing GT cars.
For now, Antonelli will need to be fully focused on F1 as he will be under significant pressure next season to compete with his teammate Russell.