Italian
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is the Italian prodigy Mercedes fast-tracked through the junior ladder, and whose single, turbulent FIA Formula 2 season in 2024 became the launchpad for a Formula 1 seat the following year.
Formula 2
A long-time Mercedes Junior, Antonelli skipped FIA Formula 3 entirely and was promoted straight to Formula 2 for 2024 with PREMA Racing, partnering Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman. It was an audacious move that exposed the rawness of going to F2 without an F3 year, made harder by PREMA struggling to adapt to the series' ground-effect regulations. Antonelli's start was rough: he scored just a single point at the Sakhir opener and spent the early rounds learning a difficult car.
The season turned at Silverstone, where in his eighth round he took his maiden F2 win in the sprint and his first podium. A feature-race victory at the Hungaroring lifted him to sixth in the standings, where he ultimately finished the championship with two wins. For a rookie skipping a rung of the ladder in an off-year for his team, sixth was a creditable result that did little to dent his reputation as one of the brightest talents in the paddock.
After F2
Mercedes had seen enough. Antonelli was confirmed as Lewis Hamilton's replacement at the works F1 team for 2025, completing one of the fastest junior-to-F1 promotions of the era. His F2 campaign, for all its early difficulty, demonstrated the in-season improvement and outright pace that justified the gamble.