Mercedes protege and 2025 race driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli will make his second appearance in an F1 practice session when he takes over Lewis Hamilton’s car on Friday at the Mexico City GP.
Antonelli, 18, made something of a false start to his eagerly-anticipated career at the top level in his first practice outing in the team’s latest car at Monza in September when he crashed rounding the Parabolica on just his fifth lap, although team boss Toto Wolff later described the Italian’s initial out-of the-box pace as being “astonishing” up to then.
That came on the weekend he was later confirmed as the Ferrari-bound Hamilton’s replacement at the Silver Arrows for next season.
Antonelli will now hope to complete the full session at the second attempt when he drives Hamilton’s W15 in first practice in Mexico, a session which is live at 7.30pm on Sky Sports F1 on Friday.
Hamilton will return to his car for Practice Two, which will last 90 minutes instead of the usual 60 this weekend due to 2025 Pirelli tyre testing.
“I’m looking forward to driving in FP1 and playing my part in helping the team make a good start on track this weekend,” Antonelli told Mercedes’ website.
“It is a new circuit for me and one I have been working hard to prepare for. The altitude makes it unique and it’s a challenge I’m excited to experience.
“I want to thank the team for giving me this opportunity to contribute.”
All drivers are required to sit out one F1 practice session through the year to allow an inexperienced driver with no more than two grands prix starts to get track time in a current car, a requirement that is being increased to two sessions for 2025.
George Russell watched on at Monza when Antonelli made his debut.
“We look forward to seeing Kimi continue his development on track in Mexico,” added Wolff of a driver whose preparation for the jump to F1 has been enhanced by a testing programme in old Mercedes cars in addition to his F2 racing season.
With two rounds of the feeder-series’ campaign to go in Qatar and Abu Dhabi from the end of November, rookie Antonelli is sixth in the standings having claimed one Sprint and one Feature race win so far.
The Italian will become the third-youngest F1 driver of all-time when he makes his competitive debut at the season-opener in Australia next March at 18 years and 203 days old – only Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll were younger when they made their debuts.
How has Antonelli’s maiden Formula 2 season been going?
In February this year, when Hamilton announced his shock move to leave Mercedes and join Ferrari at the start of 2025, there was immediately talk about whether highly-rated junior Antonelli would be handed the drive.
The Italian had at that point not turned a wheel in Formula 2 and he went on to make a slow start to his campaign but won two races before the summer break – first in the rain at Silverstone, then with victory in the Feature Race in Budapest.
At F2’s most recent weekend in Azerbaijan on September 15, Antonelli claimed his third podium of the year in the Feature Race.
He is only sixth in the F2 standings but has comfortably outscored Prema team-mate and Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman, who will join the Haas F1 team next year.
After Wolff’s very public attempts to lure Verstappen away from Red Bull came to nothing, at least in terms of the 2025 season, it was all but confirmed that Antonelli would be fast-tracked to one of the sport’s most desirable seats.
“I made up my mind five minutes after Lewis Hamilton told me that he’s going to Ferrari,” said Wolff after announcing Antonelli in the 2025 seat at Monza.
“Obviously we were discussing other options and looking at the Max idea – we didn’t discount it completely with looking at what happened at Red Bull.
“But instinctively that is the line-up with these two (Russell and Antonelli) that I always wanted, bearing in mind the fast-tracking that we did with Kimi and everything related there too, but that was immediately what I wanted to do.”
Sky Sports F1’s live Mexico City GP schedule
Thursday October 24
9pm: Drivers’ Press Conference
Friday October 25
7pm: Mexico City GP Practice One (session starts at 7.30pm)
9pm: The F1 Show
10.45pm: Mexico City GP Practice Two (session starts at 11pm)*
Saturday October 26
6.15pm: Mexico City GP Practice Three (session starts at 6.30pm)
9pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying build-up*
10pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying*
Sunday October 27
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Mexico City GP build-up*
8pm: THE MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: Mexico City GP reaction
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event (Race build-up on Sunday from 7.30pm)
Formula 1’s Americas triple header continues next weekend with the Mexico City Grand Prix, with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
