Andrea Kimi Antonelli suffered a nightmare start to his Formula 1 career at the Italian Grand Prix on Friday.
The Italian youngster – who is hotly tipped to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes when he departs for Ferrari – took command of George Russell’s W15 for FP1 at Monza
However, whilst the Italian would have been hoping for a smooth run out in his debut F1 session, things transpired very differently, with Antonelli bringing out a red flag early on after a huge crash at Parabolica.
Lewis Hamilton’s Kimi Antonelli warning
Of course, whilst his run out at Monza was his first time driving an F1 car in an official session, Antonelli has done plenty of testing in old Mercedes machinery.
Most recently, the 18-year-old tested the 2022 Mercedes F1 car after the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.
Ahead of his drive in the 2024 car this weekend, however, Lewis Hamilton warned the Italian that this year’s car was ‘drastically different’ to their 2022 effort. This was meant positively, but perhaps the stark difference between the two could explain Antonelli’s incident.
“For Kimi tomorrow it’s just about enjoying himself and having fun. It’s going to be an experience for him,” Hamilton said in an FIA press conference ahead of the weekend.
“He’s obviously been testing but tomorrow will be the first time testing this car, which is so much nicer than the 2022 car so he’s going to be all smiles tomorrow for sure.
“It’s a pretty drastic difference. The more information and input we get, the better.”
Sadly, Mercedes were not afforded the luxury of such information due to Antonelli’s early exit, but talks of his next appearance for the Silver Arrows, potentially during practice at the Mexican Grand Prix, are already rife.
