When Lewis Hamilton stunned Mercedes by announcing his move to Ferrari, Toto Wolff had to find a replacement. His thoughts quickly turned to Kimi Antonelli, the young driver he had backed almost like a second father since the Italian was 12.
One team insider still recalls the meeting clearly. Antonelli was only 17 and a half, seated attentively at Mercedes’ Brackley headquarters after completing a Formula Three test at Silverstone. At that point, he had not even raced in Formula Two, the final major step before Formula One.
‘Toto told him that the 2025 F1 seat could be his, and you could see his eyes light up,’ said one of the few people present during that meeting in early February 2024.
‘He was doing his best to stay composed. At the same time, he could hardly believe what he was hearing and was desperate to begin.’
That conversation in the English Midlands set Antonelli on a remarkable path. Now, in the chaos and intensity of Mexico City, the Mercedes rookie stands on the verge of becoming the youngest Formula One world champion in history at just 20, and in only his second season.
Nine victories have carried him to the edge of the title. Antonelli has made remarkably few errors, showing no sign of pressure-induced struggles. Even when he has lacked outright pace, a combination of composure, consistency and occasional good fortune has kept the points flowing. He leads by 123 points with only 125 still available, making the championship outcome appear almost inevitable — perhaps to be sealed in Mexico’s high-altitude air, or otherwise in Brazil next weekend.
Yet the wider public still knows surprisingly little about him. If he completes the job, Antonelli could become Formula One’s least familiar champion. His rise has also challenged every established assumption about the sport: a driver barely out of school, and only recently a teenager, is not supposed to win the world title in his second year.
Antonelli was born in Bologna on August 25, 2006, just weeks after Michael Schumacher announced his retirement from Ferrari
George Russell, Antonelli’s nearest challenger 123 points back, has had to deal with a gravitational pull towards his rival
To put his age into perspective, Antonelli is three years younger than Sebastian Vettel was when the German became Formula One’s youngest champion with Red Bull in 2010. Vettel, who held the record until now, had the appearance of a scruffy gap-year student living on $20 a day.
Antonelli was born in Bologna on August 25, 2006. Michael Schumacher had announced his Ferrari retirement only weeks earlier, while several months later McLaren confirmed Hamilton would drive for the team the following season. Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, was heading towards the second and final world championship of his career.
His father, Marco, has been quietly supporting him in Mexico. A former sports car racer, Marco now runs AKM Motorsport, based in San Marino, where the family lives. Antonelli’s mother, Veronica Pomaro, previously worked for the Italian postal service and helps manage the business. Kimi also has a younger sister, Maggie.
As a child, Antonelli became a hugely successful karting star and soon attracted Mercedes’ attention. The German manufacturer moved quickly, securing his services just before Ferrari could act — partly because he was officially too young to enter the Italian team’s academy programme.
Marco had initially hoped his son would pursue football, but Antonelli was captivated by racing from an early age. He grew up idolising Ayrton Senna, repeatedly watching DVDs of the legendary Brazilian, while Lionel Messi became another sporting hero.
At nine, he drove a Lamborghini Super Trofeo for the first time, with his father operating the pedals. From that moment, his direction seemed clear. Antonelli picked up English at race meetings — the universal language of motorsport — and now speaks it confidently. After joining Mercedes, he also began learning German.
His enthusiasm has proved infectious, creating a natural pull around him inside Mercedes. That has been a difficult dynamic for George Russell, who trails him by 123 points. Russell remains highly respected within the team and, like Antonelli, was identified and supported by Mercedes from a young age.
‘Kimi is someone who needs people around him,’ a Mercedes associate told Daily Mail Sport. ‘He tends to lean on whichever team-mate or colleague is nearby. He has a particularly close relationship with his race engineer, Bono — Peter Bonnington.
‘He is also a people’s person and has brought a real sense of fun and mischief to the team. It’s impish fun,’ a source said of Antonelli
‘He has the kind of personality that immediately attracts people. He is warm and engaging, and somehow remembers everyone’s name. He loves being in the garage and spending time with the car. He treats it almost as though it is alive, touching it and even speaking to it.
‘He is naturally sociable, but he has also brought genuine fun and mischief into the team. It is playful, mischievous energy.’
Since splitting in February after a two-year relationship with Czech Eliska Babickova, a one-time karter, he is single. He is also teetotal.
When he goes back to San Marino, he has a ritual that helps sustain him away from the swirl of high-pressure sport. He hand washes his car, an AMG GT63 Mercedes, which he crashed last year. ‘It is a meditation for him,’ I was told. ‘He does that when he can on a Monday after a race.’
It is a gruelling life in some ways for one so young, with so much of it being spent in the air, getting to and from races. He reckoned that he spent a month on planes last year, albeit a problem alleviated by taking private jets when he can.
The toll was perhaps evident on Thursday when he was excused from media duties due to a virus, a bit of which is going around the paddock. He is back in the car now and doing well enough in practice to suggest he can easily accomplish the ni]nth-place finish he requires to end all doubts he will become the first Italian since Alberto Ascari in 1953 to be crowned champion.
‘There can be challenging moments, times when you lose your privacy because someone has a camera phone and wants to record you when you are out, but I love what I do and I want to keep on in the sport for many years to come,’ he said.
Antonelli smiled, as he is wont to do, a reliable trademark of the ‘impish’ champion presumptive.