It’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s turn again. The 18-year-old, who will replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes next year as a full-time driver, will take to the track this weekend at the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit to participate in the first practice session of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Kimi Antonelli will drive the Mercedes W15 – this year’s three-time Grand Prix winner – in place of the seven-time Formula 1 world champion, effectively anticipating the handover that will take place at the end of the year, with Lewis Hamilton heading to Maranello and Kimi Andrea taking his spot at Brackley.
For the young driver from Bologna, this will be his second opportunity to drive the W15 during a Formula 1 race weekend. He already had the chance in September, during Free Practice 1 at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
On that occasion, after just a few laps, Andrea crashed into the wall at the Parabolica after losing the rear of the car while entering the corner. It was an overzealous move as he was already pushing to set the best provisional sector times of the session. A youthful mistake from which he will have surely learned.
“I’m really looking forward to driving in Free Practice 1 and doing my part to help the team start the weekend in Mexico well,” Andrea said. “It will be a new track for me, but I’ve prepared hard to be ready. The altitude will make it unique, but the challenge is really exciting. I want to thank the team for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the work they do.”
Toto Wolff, Mercedes team principal, added a few brief but true words: “We’re excited to see Andrea on track this weekend. He’ll continue his development program on the circuit in Mexico.”
Leave a Reply