Kimi Antonelli is happy at Mercedes but doesn’t shut the door on Ferrari
Rising F1 star Kimi Antonelli has made it clear he’s all in with Mercedes right now, while keeping his options open about the future.
“Ferrari are an incredible team with massive global stature, so of course racing for Ferrari would be amazing,” the 18-year-old told Sky Sports.
But Antonelli isn’t forgetting who brought him to the dance.
“I’m really happy where I am and grateful for the opportunity Mercedes have given me. They’ve supported me all the way from karting through to F1 and have always been by my side.”
Mercedes has backed Antonelli since he was barely old enough to see over a steering wheel. The team put him under contract early, funded his entire journey through karting and junior formulas, and then handed him an F1 seat alongside George Russell at just 18.
That kind of loyalty matters to the young Italian.
“I’m very happy to be racing for a team like Mercedes, and the dream and the goal is to win a world championship with them.”
Still, he wasn’t ready to completely rule out the allure of the Prancing Horse down the road.
“As for the future, we’ll see — you never know — but for now, I’m very happy where I am.”
## Wolff amazed by Antonelli’s maturity: ‘When I was 19, I was a bit of an idiot’
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff can’t stop praising Antonelli’s mindset. The Austrian team principal is impressed not just by the teenager’s raw speed, but by how composed he’s stayed during his rookie F1 campaign.
Wolff even poked fun at his own youth, admitting he “was a bit of an idiot” at the same age and could never have handled the pressure that comes with modern F1.
Antonelli’s first season has been a tale of two halves. He struggled to find consistent performance early on, but has come alive in recent months.
As the season progressed, we’ve started to see the speed and racecraft that made him such a standout in the junior categories.
At just 18, he’s already showing the kind of maturity that normally takes years to develop in the pressure cooker of Formula 1.
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