Andrea Kimi Antonelli is ready for your first test Formula 1 at the Red Bull Ring on April 16th.
A Mercedes planned a two-day test for its highly regarded junior driver in Austria, taking the wheel of the Mercedes W122021 car.
The acclimatization test will be the first of several planned F1 appearances for the 17-year-old this year, as Mercedes prepares him to progress to F1 in the future, adding to his Formula 2 championship duties with Prema.
Antonelli is being considered for promotion to F1 pending his progress this year, with Mercedes having Lewis Hamilton’s seat to fill for the 2025 season and beyond.
He could also try to place the Italian in a client team or decide to give him a second season in F2, having moved to the category directly from FRECA, ‘skipping’ F3.
After a difficult weekend for Prema in Bahrain, Antonelli moved up to ninth in the standings in Melbourne thanks to fourth place in the main race, coming from second on the grid.
F2 does not race again until the May round at Imola, giving Antonelli a window to carry out F1 testing.
Rodin driver and Sauber junior Zane Maloney leads the championship after three stages, ahead of Paul Aron and Dennis Hauger.
Commenting on the Mercedes seat for 2025, team boss Toto Wolff said he would take his time to make his decision, partly dictated by any availability of Max Verstappen.
“There are some options that are really interesting to us – from very young super talent to one of the others who are very experienced,” he told Australia’s Fox Sports in Melbourne.
“That’s not going to happen in the next few weeks or months. I want to continue monitoring the market. It depends on what Max does.”
As part of F1’s testing of previous regulations, testing can be done with this year’s 2022-spec machines, which bear more similarity to the current crop of cars.
This means that Antonelli would also be allowed to test Mercedes’ W13 in future tests.
