The FIA has relaxed its settlement for it. Last June, article 13.1.32 of Annex L of the International Sports Code, dealing with the conditions of access to the super license, was modified. Since then, he has stated that “The pilot must be at least 18 years old at the start of the test of his first F1 competition. To the mere appreciation of the FIA, a pilot judged as having recently and constantly showed an exceptional capacity and maturity in competitions for single -seater formula can be granted a super license at the age of 17 . »»
The limitation of the legal age to pilot in F1 was introduced in 2015 following the arrival of a UFO named Max Verstappen a few months earlier, at only 17 years old. The Dutchman pushed the FIA to harden his rules, before they were published again last June, nine years later. This change came to the point, when rumors were blooming from the arrival of Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Williams in place of Logan Sargeant. Then aged 17 and engaged in Formula 2 for only a few months, the protégé of the Mercedes Academy could have, thanks to this regulatory modification, to anticipate its beginnings in the queen category.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli replaces Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. @DPPI
Mercedes finally decided to let him ripen in F2 until the end of the season, before giving him his chance from the start of the 2025 season. The ex prema driver will be one of the five rookies on the starting grid of the first big Price in Australia and will be largely the youngest in the new promotion. Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be 18 years old, 6 months and 22 days when the red lights will go out above the Albert Park in Melbourne for his first departure.
He will then become the third youngest driver in the history of the category after Max Verstapun (17 years, 5 months and 15 days) and launches Stroll (18 years, 4 months and 26 days). Unlike the other two, Andrea Kimi Antonelli has the chance to make her debut in a head stable. To find a trace of a rookie incorporating a training that finished in the top 4 the previous year, you have to go back to 2007 when a certain Lewis Hamilton made its big debut at McLaren. As a symbol, Andrea Kimi Antonelli replaces the seven -time world champion at Mercedes.
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Antonelli is five to become the youngest world champion in history
The Italian will have the opportunity – if the car allows him – to become the youngest pilot to climb on an F1 podium, or even to win a race. These two statistics belong to Max Verstappen, the first podium of which was a victory in Barcelona in 2016. To manage to do better than the quadruple world champion, “AKA” will absolutely have to win one of the first three sleeves of the season. If I got there in Japan, the third game of the year, he will have managed to win a race while just three days less than Max Verstappen in 2016.
Despite her young age, Andrea Kimi Antonelli can also hope to adapt quickly to her car to extract its quintessence from the first weekends. Going up on the podium from his beginnings in F1, the young man would imitate Lewis Hamilton, Jacques Villeneuve or Kévin Magnussen. If we allow ourselves to extrapolate a little more, we can imagine that Mercedes quickly regains its past splendor and be able to fight for the title from the arrival of the new regulations of 2026, where the new engine of the Star firm is announced formidable. By winning the world crown before 2029 – five chances of achieving it – the native of Bologna would become the youngest world champion in history.
All this is obviously only pure hypothesis, but this quite well reflects the precocity of a phenomenon which has won everything to the F2, where its only season ended in a 6th final place. “” I learned a lot as a pilot and I also learned to work as well as possible with the team, especially in difficult times. Recently explained the protégé of Mercedes. “I also participated in my first free test sessions 1 and carried out the after-season F1 tests, which was useful to better understand the car and the tires. So many excellent learnings for next year. »» He is now responsible for conquering F1 with the same appetite as that with which he devoured promotion formulas.
