Racing
© Chris Game
Kimi Antonelli says Mercedes had already put him on the path to replace Lewis Hamilton before Hamilton’s move to Ferrari was even public, with Toto Wolff telling him in February 2024 that the team was considering him for a 2025 Formula 1 seat.
Speaking in SAP’s Significant Figures video, Antonelli recalled being called into Wolff’s office at Silverstone after a Formula 3 test he was using to learn the circuit before racing there in Formula 2. Rosa Herrero Venegas was also in the room when Wolff got straight to the point. “Look, Lewis is going to Ferrari, and we were thinking to put you in the car for next year,” Antonelli said Wolff told him.
The timing left Antonelli stunned. He said he had not even started Formula 2 and still felt he had “so much to prove” before being worthy of such a chance. When Wolff asked him, “If the opportunity comes, will you be ready?”, Antonelli replied: “Yeah, I mean, I’ve got to be ready.” He said Mercedes then began preparing him with Formula 1 testing.
That plan became official on 31 August 2024, when Mercedes confirmed Antonelli as its 2025 race driver. The announcement came while he was seventh in the Formula 2 standings after an uneven rookie season that still included two victories, underlining how aggressively Mercedes had moved to place him in Hamilton’s seat.
Antonelli said the step up quickly brought the pressure into focus. His rookie Formula 1 season in 2025 opened well with fourth place on debut in Melbourne, and he took his first podium in Montreal, but the European part of the year became far more difficult. Across that stretch he scored only three points and said the weight of expectation got on top of him.
“Mostly last year I felt this,” Antonelli said of the pressure. “Then I had a difficult period, European season, where I really struggled.” He admitted: “I let the pressure kind of destroy me as well during that period, because I felt like I was letting down so many people who had believed in me. Of course, especially Toto, because he was the main one who took the decision.”
Antonelli said a big meeting with Mercedes after the European season changed the direction of his year. “That helped me to reset and just start again,” he said, adding that he slowly found his way back and produced a stronger second half of the season.
He now sees that difficult first year as the basis for his current form. Antonelli said the experience taught him how his body reacts under pressure, how his mind works in hard moments, and what he needs to recover the right focus and energy across a race weekend. By the end of 2025, he said he felt “so drained” by a learning curve that felt like “doing three years at once.”
The benefit is showing in 2026. Antonelli goes into the summer break leading the championship with six wins and nine podiums from the first 11 rounds, holding a 50-point advantage as Mercedes’ early gamble on Hamilton’s successor turns into a title push a year earlier than almost anyone expected.