Who are Kimi Antonelli’s parents? All about the Mercedes prodigy’s family

Mercedes has selected Kimi Antonelli as their permanent F1 driver, who will replace Lewis Hamilton in 2025. The Italian youngster's motorsport story began when he was seven years old. Since the beginning, he had racing DNA as his family has also been heavily invested in motorsports.

Young Kimi was born on 25 August 2006, in Bologna, Italy, to former racing driver Marco Antonelli and Elisabetta Antonelli. Unfortunately, not a lot of information is available on Kimi's mother, but his father made sure that his son started early so that he would get a chance to enter top-tier racing series quickly.

The youngster started karting at the age of seven and won the Easykart International Grand Finals in 2015. Since Marco was a racing driver himself, Kimi raced under his very own karting team, Antonelli Motorsport.

Marco Antonelli started racing in 1992 in the Italian Superturismo Championship. He then participated in multiple GT series like the European Touring Car Championship, the Blancpain GT Series, the International GT Open, and more.

He has not won any of the championships he has participated in but came close to winning the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Middle East in 2017. His last motorsport series as a driver was the International GT Open in 2022.

Currently, Kimi is in the spotlight as he will fill Lewis Hamilton's massive shoes in Mercedes. Recently, he debuted in F1 by driving George Russell's car in the 2024 F1 Italian GP's FP1 session. After a few fast laps, the youngster crashed out at the Parabolica turn and retired from the session.

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Kimi Antonelli's journey to F1 and joining Mercedes for 2025

As mentioned above, Kimi Antonelli started his career in motorsports by racing go-karts at the age of seven. He won several championships in his early years before entering the Italian F4 championship. During his karting days, he was taken up by Mercedes' junior program in 2019.

In Italian F4, he drove for Prema Racing and first battled with his now-F2 teammate, Oliver Bearman.

Along with winning the Italian F4 in 2022, he also participated in UAE's F4 championship and won the ADAC F4 championship that same year. In 2023, he raced in Formula Regional Middle East and European championships and won both championships. Finally, in 2024, he was promoted to the F2 Championship with Prema Racing, along with Ferrari protege Oliver Bearman.

Though Antonelli currently stands in sixth place in his debut F2 championship, he was given the opportunity to make his debut in F1 with Mercedes, receiving a permanent seat for 2025.