Andrea Kimi Antonelli is set to make his debut as a Mercedes driver on the Formula 1 grid in 2025. The young driver is making his official debut with a top team, but according to Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, the German racing team is taking a risk. However, the advisor also sees that Antonelli has the potential to pose a threat to teammate George Russell.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is following in the footsteps of Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. As a result, much is expected from the young talent. The opening race in Melbourne will not be the first time Antonelli has been behind the wheel for Mercedes, as the Italian was allowed to drive a free practice session last year in Monza. However, Antonelli was not behind the wheel for long. Within ten minutes, the new Mercedes driver came to a halt in the tire stacks.
“We saw Antonelli’s talent in Monza, although I don’t understand why they put him in the car on that circuit,” Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko reflects on Antonelli’s F1 debut with Sport.de. “He was very fast in his first three laps, but in the fourth lap, he hit the guardrails.”
Despite the disappointing start of the young Italian, Marko believes that Antonelli could pose a threat to his teammate George Russell. “I think that if he uses his skills well, which he has, he could be a threat to Russell.”
Verstappen’s Case
Toto Wolff’s decision to directly promote Antonelli to Mercedes is a risk, as the young driver has not had the opportunity to ‘mature’ at a midfield team, like Russell did at Williams. The Mercedes team boss explained that he did not want to lose Antonelli to another team, as he previously missed out on Max Verstappen.
However, according to Marko, the comparison doesn’t entirely hold up, as Mercedes has taken more of a “risk” with Antonelli than Red Bull did with Verstappen. “Antonelli is a risk, but we’ve taken that risk in the past with Max Verstappen. Max was very young when he got into that car. But in his case, he wasn’t in a top team, he started at Red Bull’s sister team, so he had less pressure.”
