Mercedes organized extra mileage for the 18-year-old rookie before his F1 debut, allowing Kimi Antonelli to drive the Silver Arrows W11, which won both world championships, during the 2020 season.
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This car allowed Lewis Hamilton to obtain his seventh world title as a driver, thus equaling the record, a title which remains his last in F1, to this day.
A program to acclimatize to the car
Kimi Antonelli followed a rigorous testing program in preparation for his debut F1 campaign, driving several Mercedes cars, including the 2021 and 2022 models, in outings last year. The Italian also drove the 2024 Mercedes car when it made its free practice debut at Monza, and again during the end-of-season test in Abu Dhabi last month.
But for Kimi Antonelli's latest outing, which takes place in Jerez, Spain, Mercedes has chosen to entrust him with a much older carfrom the regulatory era before ground effects.
This decision is a direct result of an update to the F1 sporting regulations regarding “previous car tests” (TPC). Previously, F1 teams had no restrictions on the mileage they could do in cars that were at least two years old.
However, the regulations were changed for 2025 after Max Verstappen tested the 2022 Red Bull car at Imola ahead of last year's Spanish Grand Prix to address the RB20's weaknesses. Now, F1 teams can only complete a maximum of 20 days per year of TPC, with a limit of 1,000 kilometers for current drivers.
Although Mercedes could, in theory, have carried out Kimi Antonelli's outing with a 2023 car as part of the TPC, the team deliberately chose not to do so to save valuable testing time.
Instead, Kimi Antonelli's release will officially be classified as a “Historic Car Test” (THC), which concerns cars “designed and constructed to comply with the Technical Regulations of one of the three calendar years immediately preceding the year preceding the championship. »
This approach not only allows Mercedes to preserve time TPC for later in the year, but also to give the Formula 2 graduate time to re-acclimatise with F1 cars, after the winter break.
Haas is also present in Jerez
Haas is also present at the Jerez circuit, where the American team is performing its very first TPC testing program.
Oliver Bearman will drive the 2023 Haas this Wednesday, while his teammate Esteban Ocon takes over on Thursday.
Toyota's junior driver, Ritomo Miyata, will also have the opportunity to take the wheel of Haas' VF-23at the end of each day.
