Kimi Antonelli could make a Formula 1 debut sooner than anybody expected. And it may come at the expense of Williams driver Logan Sargeant.
It emerged over the Miami Grand Prix weekend that Williams had requested special dispensation from the FIA to get Antonelli in the car in the near future. Their rules wouldn’t ordinarily allow him to obtain a superlicence until his 18th birthday in late August.
Sargeant has refused to confirm whether he’s had any assurances from team principal James Vowles about seeing out the season. Williams have denied that they’ll make a change before the next race at Imola.
Vowles seems to have accelerated his plan to sign Antonelli after a ‘stunning’ Mercedes test at the Emilia Romagna GP venue earlier this month. The Silver Arrows have been putting him through his paces in old F1 machinery in addition to testing him in Formula 2.
The 17-year-old set lap times similar to Lewis Hamilton (in the 2022 machinery) on the first day of running. But it was on the second day that he really ‘surprised’ everyone with his efforts on the medium tyres.
Antonelli entered F2 this year amid plenty of hype, with some at Mercedes hailing him as the next Charles Leclerc or Max Verstappen. But few would have anticipated such a swift adaptation to F1 machinery.
Mercedes unleash Kimi Antonelli on low-fuel run at Silverstone
The latest step in Antonelli’s testing programme was a run at Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix. It’s his third outing overall after trips to the Red Bull Ring in Austria and then Imola.
Under the rules, teams have to use cars that are at least two years old in these events. But that doesn’t mean they can’t draw valuable conclusions.
The difference between this test and the previous two was that Antonelli wasn’t alone on track. According to F1-Insider, he was joined by Mercedes reserve driver Mick Schumacher, who was on a different run plan.
Schumacher completed over 350km – considerably more than a full race distance – on hard tyres and high fuel. The team wanted to experiment with different settings and see if they could bring the tyres into an optimal working window, something Hamilton and George Russell have struggled to do recently.
As for Antonelli, Mercedes gave him the opportunity ‘to hunt for times to his heart’s content’ on low fuel and soft tyres. In Imola, he focused on longer runs, so this seemed like the natural next step.
The team have decided to keep his lap times ‘secret’. Perhaps they’re wary of adding to the growing pressure on their teenage academy star.
Will Kimi Antonelli race for Mercedes in 2025?
Whether or not Antonelli races for Williams this year, there will be a bigger question hanging over him. With Hamilton headed to Ferrari, Toto Wolff is considering whether to promote him to Mercedes.
That’s why his extensive testing will be so valuable. It will give the team a vast amount of data to analyse as they make their decision.
Of course, half a season or so at Williams would be even more representative. He’d have to put together a full race weekend under significantly more scrutiny.
He’d also be up against Alex Albon, a veteran of 87 Grands Prix who has scored two podiums in his career. Albon has rather brutally beaten Sargeant, out-qualifying him for every single race during their partnership.
2016 world champion Nico Rosberg has previously warned his former team boss Wolff that it may be too early for Antonelli to race for a top team. But if he was to shine at Williams, then he’d surely remove any lingering doubts at Brackley.
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