Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli will make his debut in an official grand prix session during opening practice for the Italian Grand Prix.
Antonelli, who turned 18 years old today, will take part in the first hour of running on Friday.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff confirmed their plans after today’s Dutch Grand Prix. However he also dismissed rumours Antonelli could be loaned to their customer team Williams as a replacement for the struggling Logan Sargeant
“That’s not going to happen,” Wolff told Sky. “We’re going to put Kimi in FP1 on Friday, that’s definitive, and continue our programme as we have planned.”
It is the latest step towards Formula 1 for the young Italian prospect, who has been a prized member of Mercedes’ junior driver programme since 2019. Antonelli currently races in Formula 2 with the Prema team, having jumped straight into the championship from racing at Formula Regional level in 2023.
Antonelli is widely believed to be the frontrunning candidate to fill Lewis Hamilton’s F1 race seat at Mercedes when the seven-times world champion departs the team at the end of the season.
Antonelli already has recent experience of driving a modern F1 car. He drove a 2022-specification Mercedes W13 around the Circuit de Catalunya earlier this year and has also had F1 runs in private tests at the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone and Imola under F1’s Testing with Previous Cars programme allowed under F1’s sporting regulations.
F1 teams are required to run an inexperienced car in each of their cars during a first practice session over the course of the season. Mercedes will fulfil one of their two requirements by running Antonelli.
In his first season in Formula 2, Antonelli currently sits seventh in the championship on 87 points, 78 fewer than leading driver Isack Hadjar. He has taken two race victories over the first 20 races of the season, winning the sprint race at Silverstone and the feature race at the Hungaroring.
This article will be updated.
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