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One of the biggest early plot twists of the 2026 Formula 1 season is that the Mercedes young gun Kimi Antonelli has put up quite the fight against his teammate, George Russell, in the first few rounds of the year. With his win at the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of March, he became the youngest Drivers’ Championship leader ever in just his second year in F1.
But apart from being a teenage prodigy and the first rookie that Toto Wolff has ever taken under his wing, who exactly is Kimi Antonelli? To answer that question, here are three things that you might not have known about the youngster taking the racing world by storm.
Antonelli was nearly a Ferrari driver
There is an alternate universe where Antonelli is racing in Ferrari red.
Even in the early stages of his career, it was clear that Antonelli had something special about him. After just a few years into his karting career, he had already collected titles in the Trofeo Easykart Italia and Easykart International Grand Final, as well as several other top three finishes. This performance was enough to gain the attention of several big names in motorsport, including that of the Scuderia itself.
Massimo Rivola, the director of the Ferrari Driver Academy back in 2017, had noticed Antonelli and recommended him for the junior program.
According to Antonelli’s father, Marco Antonelli, "He was 11 years old, and even tried out the simulator in Maranello - the same one designed for the academy's students. Everything was ready.”
Alas, despite looking like a done deal, Ferrari had some hesitations, and ended up passing on Antonelli.
"But Maurizio Arrivabene, who was then head of the racing department, said my child was still too young,” continued his father.
“A few months later, Mercedes contacted us, and the rest is history.”
Racing is a family business for the Antonellis
Like many F1 drivers, Antonelli comes from a racing family. In fact, his father Marco has been racing GT cars for quite some time, and his passion for it led him to establish his own racing team, Antonelli Motorsport, in 1993, 23 years before the birth of his son.
Antonelli Motorsport is still an active team, participating mostly in international GT races and other series such as the Porsche Supercup and Lamborghini Super Trofeo (with the senior Antonelli himself behind the wheel for many of them). They expanded, however, into junior Formula series such as the Italian F4, F4 United Arab Emirates and E4 in 2020, under the name AKM Motorsport, and even added an official karting and junior division in 2023.
And that is where Kimi comes in, because not only does he have some early karting and racing credits to his name as part of the team, but he also spent time working as a driver coach for the AKM karting team, and helped test and develop their OK-N and OK-J chassis. This makes Antonelli/AKM Motorsport truly feel like a father-son business, and makes one wonder if Antonelli sees himself in a team owner position later in life.
As a further fun fact, did you know that former Prema F1 Academy driver Tina Hausmann made her F4 debut driving for AKM in 2023?
Antonelli wants to team up with Max Verstappen
With Wolff making it clear for years now that he would love to see Max Verstappen racing for Mercedes, and Verstappen’s displeasure at how things were developing at Red Bull throughout the 2025 season, many wondered if we might see him jump ship and join Antonelli the Silver Arrows some time in the near future.
And while that specific reality is looking more and more unlikely by the minute, Antonelli has expressed a desire to team up with Verstappen… in another racing series.
In an interview with Racing New 365, Antonelli said, “That will be super cool. I would love to do an endurance [race] with Max. That would be pretty awesome.
"It's cool because we both have a passion for GTs. Obviously, on my side, it's come from my dad with the GT team. Occasionally, I go and test when I can, and Max, as well, is really enjoying it.”
Undoubtedly, with the close bond that Antonelli shares with his father, who is frequently present in the Mercedes garage during F1 races, and with Marco Antonelli’s long career in GT racing, which started back in 1986, it is not surprising that the young Italian would want to follow in his father’s footsteps one day. And doing that alongside the one and only Verstappen would be an even more incredible adventure.
"It's something that in the future I would really like to do, to race with him in an endurance race. We will be a really cool pair, and it would be a really cool experience.”
Want more surprising facts about this year’s F1 drivers and race tracks? Check out our other Speed Reads:
- Speed Read: 3 Things You Didn’t Know About Lewis Hamilton
- Speed Read: 3 Things You Didn’t Know About the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Images via Mercedes-Benz Media
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