Kimi Antonelli

His father, Marco Antonelli, is a sportscar racing driver and owner of the San Marino–based AKM Motorsport, which has competed in the Italian F4 Championship since 2022 and was preceded by Antonelli Motorsport, founded in 1993 and winner of the 2018 Italian GT Championship. His mother, Veronica Antonelli, is a former employee of Poste Italiane and has worked in motorsport since 1997 helping Marco operate AKM. He has a younger sister named Maggie.

Antonelli shares his middle name with the forename of Kimi Räikkönen — the 2007 Formula One World Drivers' Champion — though Antonelli has stated the name was suggested by Enrico Bertaggia to his father, who wanted a foreign name to accompany "Andrea", and that he was not named after Räikkönen. He attended ITCS Gaetano Salvemini in Casalecchio di Reno, studying international relations and marketing.

Antonelli began kart racing at age seven. After attending a summer camp with the Automobile Club d'Italia in 2014, he was scouted by Giovanni Minardi — son of Giancarlo Minardi — who signed him to Minardi Management. He won the 2015 Trofeo Easykart Italia in the 60 cc class and the Easykart International Grand Final that year from twenty-second on the grid.

Antonelli signed with the Mercedes Junior Team in 2018 and won the WSK Champions Cup, South Garda Winter Cup, and ROK Cup International Final in the Mini class. Progressing to OK-Junior in 2019, he won the South Garda Winter Cup, WSK Super Master Series, WSK Euro Series, WSK Open Cup, and WSK Final Cup, all with Rosberg Racing Academy, finishing runner-up to Marcus Amand at the European Championship.

In 2020, aged 13, Antonelli moved to the senior OK class and won the European Championship on debut aged 14, as well as the WSK Euro Series and Italian Championship with Kart Republic. He retired from the World Championship final at Portimão after colliding with the stationary kart of Maya Weug in wet conditions, suffering a broken left tibia and metatarsus. The CIK-FIA named him the FIA Karting Rookie of the Year.

In 2021, bidding to become the youngest-ever KZ gearbox World Champion — a record held by Max Verstappen since 2013 — he finished fifteenth after taking pole in the heats. He successfully defended his OK European Championship with five wins from eight rounds, finishing runner-up to Rafael Câmara at the WSK Champions Cup and WSK Super Master Series.

Three weeks after turning 15, Antonelli made his junior formulae debut in the fifth round of the 2021 Italian F4 Championship with Prema at the Red Bull Ring. At the final event at Monza he finished second in race one after a race-long battle with champion-elect Oliver Bearman and took additional podiums in races two and three.

In 2022, Antonelli won the Italian F4 Championship with Prema, including a then-record thirteen victories. In parallel, he won the ADAC Formula 4 Championship, taking all available wins, pole positions, and fastest laps at the Hockenheimring in one round, and clinching the title at the Nürburgring. At the FIA Motorsport Games at Paul Ricard, representing Team Italy in the Formula 4 Cup discipline, he won both the qualifying and main races while driving with a broken left wrist — sustained in a collision near the end of qualifying — taking the gold medal and securing Italy's victory in the overall medal table. He received a €10,000 grant from chassis manufacturer KC Motorgroup following the win. Antonelli graduated from F4 with 26 wins, 24 pole positions, and 37 podium finishes in 57 appearances, becoming the second-most successful driver in the history of the discipline.

Antonelli won the Formula Regional Middle East Championship with Mumbai Falcons, securing the title with one race to spare after seven podiums from five rounds across Kuwait, Dubai, and Yas Marina.

In the Formula Regional European Championship with Prema, Marcus Simmons of Autosport compared the intrigue surrounding his campaign to the Formula Three debuts of Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen, and Verstappen. Antonelli clinched the title at Zandvoort, winning by over 12 seconds in mixed-weather conditions after starting eighth — a victory he later described as "one of [his] best races". He dedicated the title to Dilano van 't Hoff, who died in a fatal accident at Spa-Francorchamps during the season. He finished 39 points ahead of Martinius Stenshorne, was voted driver of the season by team principals, and was ranked the best driver in junior formulae throughout 2023 by Formula Scout.

Antonelli bypassed the international FIA Formula 3 Championship and progressed directly to FIA Formula 2 with Prema alongside Ferrari Driver Academy member Bearman. Prema struggled to adapt to new ground-effect regulations, and Antonelli sat ninth in the standings halfway through the season. Toto Wolff commented that Mercedes were unfazed by his results and that "a champion needs to be thrown in the cold water."

At Silverstone, Antonelli secured his maiden F2 win and podium in a rain-affected sprint from pole. He took his first feature race victory in Budapest after starting seventh, elevating him to sixth in the standings. He finished third in Baku and received a ten-place grid penalty at Monza — applied for Prema's use of dry ice as a cooling agent. He withdrew from the season-ending round at Yas Marina with illness, finishing the season sixth on 113 points with two victories from three podiums, 38 ahead of teammate Bearman in twelfth.

In April 2019, Mercedes announced Antonelli had joined their Junior Team. On 17–18 April 2024 he conducted his first two-day test driving the W12 at the Red Bull Ring, with further private tests in the W13 at Imola, Silverstone, Barcelona-Catalunya, and Spa-Francorchamps. He made his free practice debut at the 2024 Italian Grand Prix in George Russell's W15, setting the fastest lap before spinning at the Curva Alboreto corner 10 minutes into the session and hitting the tyre barrier at 52 g. Toto Wolff defended him after the crash. He entered another free practice session at the Mexico City Grand Prix, finishing twelfth after sustaining floor damage from debris.

Antonelli signed for Mercedes in 2025, replacing Lewis Hamilton to partner George Russell on a one-year contract. At his debut at the Australian Grand Prix, aged 18 years and 203 days, he became the first Italian driver in Formula One since Antonio Giovinazzi in 2021, the first Mercedes rookie since 1954, and the third-youngest driver in Formula One history. He qualified sixteenth with floor damage before climbing to fourth in the rain-affected race, becoming the second-youngest points-scorer in Formula One history. In Japan he became both the youngest driver to lead a race and the youngest to set a fastest lap in Formula One history, and the third driver to achieve three consecutive top-six finishes from debut after Jackie Stewart (1965) and Hamilton (2007).

At the Canadian Grand Prix he finished third, holding off championship-leader Oscar Piastri, becoming the third-youngest podium finisher in Formula One history as teammate Russell won. He crashed into Verstappen on the first lap in Austria, receiving a three-place grid penalty for the British Grand Prix. At São Paulo, he clinched second in the sprint in a race-long battle with Lando Norris and achieved his maiden front-row start in the Grand Prix, holding off Verstappen in the closing laps for another second-place; Luke Slater of The Daily Telegraph called it "the first weekend where he thoroughly out-performed Russell." In Las Vegas, heavy rain saw him qualify seventeenth before a second-lap stop for hard-compound tyres elevated him to fourth, eventually claiming another podium after Piastri and Norris were disqualified. He received death threats on social media after unfounded speculation by Red Bull that he had let Norris past in Qatar.

Antonelli was confirmed to remain at Mercedes alongside Russell for their 2026 "masterplan." Mercedes emerged as the leading constructor over Ferrari with a superior energy recovery system on the W17. At the Chinese Grand Prix Antonelli became the youngest polesitter in Formula One history, eclipsing Vettel by nearly two years, and won the main race by five seconds over Russell, also becoming the second-youngest Grand Prix winner and the first Italian Formula One victor in two decades. At the Japanese Grand Prix, a safety car allowed him to build a 13-second margin over Piastri, becoming the youngest World Drivers' Championship leader.

In May 2023, Antonelli debuted in sportscar racing with his father's AKM Motorsport at the Italian GT3 Championship at Misano, driving the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and winning race one from pole.

Antonelli co-founded kart racing team AKM Motorsport by Kart Republic alongside his father in 2023, where he serves as driver coach and chassis tester. He is the subject of the short documentary The Seat (2025), directed by Kyle Thrash and distributed by Netflix, documenting his promotion to Mercedes for 2025. He appeared in a cameo role as Matteo in the sports drama film Italian Race (2016). He was appointed ambassador of Italian sport for San Marino by the Congress of State and served as a torchbearer ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Antonelli selected the racing number 12, citing inspiration from his idol Ayrton Senna, having used the same number throughout his 2022 and 2023 title-winning junior seasons. He passed his driving test six weeks before his Formula One debut and continued studying online for his maturità during his rookie season.

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