Mercedes mechanics have revealed a very different side of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, sharing previously untold stories about the young Italian’s practical jokes, early Formula 1 crashes and the remarkable bond he developed with his team long before becoming the 2026 F1 world champion. Behind his success on the track lies a relationship built on trust, mutual respect and a personality that has made the 20-year-old one of the most popular figures inside the Mercedes garage.
The mechanics working on Kimi Antonelli’s car have learnt to watch their backs. Not because they fear an accident during a pit stop, but because of the new Formula 1 world champion himself. The Italian has a rather unusual habit of approaching his mechanics, greeting them and, when they least expect it, pinching their nipples. Nobody appears to be safe from his practical jokes, which have become part of the special relationship he has developed with the people responsible for his car.
Behind these antics, seemingly far removed from the image of a world champion, there is something much deeper. Success often has roots that remain invisible to the outside world, and understanding them means looking beyond what happens on the circuit. In Antonelli’s case, that means listening to the people who share the work, pressure and emotions of a Grand Prix weekend with him.
Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes mechanics reveal his playful personality
Through access to the Mercedes garage at the Mexican Grand Prix, Motorsport.com gathered accounts from the mechanics who know Antonelli best. Their stories paint a picture of a young man who achieved something that even a world championship cannot automatically guarantee: the trust and respect of those working alongside him.
That relationship developed naturally, partly because of an attitude Antonelli learnt long before reaching Formula 1. As a child, he accompanied his father, Marco Antonelli, to races with his own team. Surrounded by workshops, mechanics and racing circuits, he learnt an important lesson: before being a racing driver, you must understand what it means to belong to a team.
“When he comes into the garage, it’s quite a sight,” said Nathan Tupper, one of the mechanics working on the power unit of Antonelli’s number 12 car. “He grabs everyone, pinches nipples, slaps people all over and causes chaos. At the end of the day, he’s 20 years old, and that’s just the way he is.”
Ash Jones, the second senior mechanic on Antonelli’s car, confirmed that the jokes are almost impossible to count. “There are so many practical jokes that it would be difficult to list them all. He comes over, says hello and then gives you a pinch. That’s his way of joking with us. He likes having a good relationship with everyone, laughing and having fun together.”
The jokes do not stop even when the situation would normally demand maximum concentration. Tom Mason, the number one mechanic on Antonelli’s car, explained that the Italian remains remarkably relaxed before important sessions.
“It always makes me laugh watching him get ready to climb into the car before qualifying. He carries on joking, grabbing the guys and tickling them. Even when the pressure is incredibly high, he’s there having fun. He’s unbelievably relaxed.”
The same driver who has demonstrated surprising maturity on the circuit becomes an ordinary 20-year-old eager to enjoy himself as soon as he walks into the garage.
Birthday pranks and the special atmosphere inside Mercedes
Birthdays are another occasion when the Mercedes mechanics need to be careful. Antonelli has introduced a tradition of celebrating his colleagues by covering their faces with cream. Callum Wooldridge, who works on the front end of Antonelli’s car, explained why the tradition has become so popular within the team.
“When you work in Formula 1, you spend an enormous amount of time away from home, and sometimes you have to celebrate your birthday during a Grand Prix. It’s not always pleasant, and sometimes you really miss home. Kimi started this thing of putting cream in people’s faces, and I don’t think there are many other garages in the paddock where something like that happens. It’s fun. It happened to me too, on my birthday in September last year.”
These jokes have helped create an environment in which the relationship between the driver and his mechanics has become exceptionally close.
“It’s one of the best working environments I’ve ever experienced with a driver,” Jones explained. “With Kimi, you feel completely comfortable. It’s like talking to one of the guys you work with every day. There’s no awkwardness, no tension when you speak to him.”
Antonelli’s race engineer, Peter Bonnington, also encourages this atmosphere of familiarity. “Bono encourages us to interact with him and joke around,” Mason explained. “Kimi is very approachable, he likes laughing with the guys. It’s genuinely a very good environment to work in.”
Bonnington’s relationship with the Italian has also been important on the track, including the role he played in Antonelli’s Austin Grand Prix victory.
Kimi Antonelli’s first Mercedes F1 tests: Crashes and a teenager in a blue cap
To discover another side of Antonelli’s personality, it is necessary to return to 2024, when Mercedes began the testing programme designed to prepare him for his Formula 1 debut. Franck Bougeard was among the mechanics involved in those sessions. Their first meeting came during a test in Austria that spring, when Antonelli was just 17 years old, wearing a blue cap with rather untidy hair sticking out from underneath it.
“I remember all that hair coming out from under his cap, looking rather messy,” Bougeard recalled with a smile. “He really looked like a little kid. And to think he was there to drive a Formula 1 car.”
Bougeard’s memories also include Antonelli’s early accidents, which came as the youngster was learning to understand the limits of a Formula 1 car.
“At Abu Dhabi, he crashed and damaged the chassis. Fortunately, we’d brought the spare one, which is something you almost never normally do at those tests. I don’t even know why we’d brought it, but thankfully we had, because we needed it.”
Then came Monza and another accident. “At that point, I was starting to think: brilliant, every time this kid leaves the garage, we end up having to change a chassis!”
Bougeard now laughs about those incidents, which have become entertaining memories of Antonelli’s development. “He was very quick, but sometimes he overdid it. He had to learn where the car’s limit was, and a few accidents were part of that process. That’s exactly why we were there, to give him the opportunity to learn.”
Antonelli’s apologies after crashing and his father’s half-hour telling-off
After his accident at Monza, Antonelli returned to the garage visibly upset about the additional work he had caused his mechanics.
“He kept apologising,” Bougeard recalled. “He said he was terribly sorry for having destroyed the car again. I told him it wasn’t a problem and that the important thing was that he was all right. Then I asked him: what did your father say?”
Antonelli’s answer has remained firmly in the mechanic’s memory. “He gave me a telling-off for half an hour!”
Bougeard also wanted to know how Antonelli’s mother had reacted. The young driver explained that she had been extremely frightened, to the point of tears. Here was a teenager already capable of driving a Formula 1 car, yet still experiencing familiar family situations: a father telling him off, a mother worrying about his safety and a young man returning to his mechanics to apologise.
Marco Antonelli was also involved in another memorable incident. During a test in Abu Dhabi, after learning that his son had crashed into the barriers, he immediately rushed towards the scene of the accident, even crossing the circuit to reach him.
“Marco was on the other side of the track. When Kimi had the accident, he immediately set off to get to him. I had to speak to him afterwards because I told him: Marco, there are professionals here, there are ambulances. The last thing I want is for you to get run over by an ambulance while crossing the circuit!”
Marco admitted that he had made a mistake.
The Mercedes mechanic who told Antonelli to stop apologising
The accidents during Antonelli’s early months were not simply amusing episodes. Tom Mason explained that when the Italian joined the Mercedes race team at the beginning of 2025, one of his biggest concerns was creating too much work for his mechanics.
“Whenever he made a mistake, he was incredibly sorry. He kept apologising for the damage to the car and for all the work he’d made us do. Eventually, I told him he didn’t need to worry about that any more.”
Mason remembers exactly what he told the young driver. “I said to him: you don’t have to apologise to us. If something goes wrong, you don’t need to worry about the car or the work we have to do. We’re happy to do our jobs. As long as you give everything you’ve got, we’ll do exactly the same for you.”
Before Antonelli arrived, there had inevitably been questions within the team. Mercedes was preparing to say goodbye to Lewis Hamilton after a hugely successful partnership spanning many years, replacing him with a driver who was only 18 years old.
“We didn’t know exactly what to expect. We’d worked with Lewis for so many years and knew his habits perfectly. With Kimi, everything would be new. I wondered how many accidents he might have, how long it would take him to adapt and how much additional work he might create for us.”
There were difficult moments, particularly during the 2025 season. However, Mason emphasised that Antonelli never created tension within the garage, even when things were going badly.
“Spa was particularly difficult for him. But we weren’t angry. Quite the opposite, we felt sorry seeing him suffer. He was so young and had an enormous amount of pressure on his shoulders.”
One characteristic impressed Mason more than anything else: Antonelli’s ability to move on quickly from a negative experience.
“He can have a terrible weekend or a practice session where everything goes wrong. When he gets out of the car, he’s angry, and you can clearly see it. But the next time you meet him, he’s already completely different. He comes back into the garage enthusiastic again, ready to start over. He doesn’t carry the negativity around with him. It’s as though he starts from zero every time.”
That quality also makes life easier for those responsible for managing the mechanics.
“If a driver is always in a bad mood, the people working with him eventually end up feeling the same way. With Kimi, the opposite happens. He’s so positive that his enthusiasm spreads to everyone. For me, having to coordinate the work of the guys, it’s an ideal situation.”
How Kimi Antonelli learnt every Mercedes mechanic’s name in two days
There is another detail on which all five mechanics agree. Antonelli knows the people working on his car personally and made a remarkable effort to learn their names almost immediately.
“It’s one of the things that impressed me most,” Ash Jones explained. “He knows everyone in the garage. Not just their names, but details about their personal lives too. If you tell him something about yourself, he remembers it.”
Tom Mason recalled an episode from the days before Antonelli officially joined the race team.
“When we found out Kimi was coming, I spoke to Rosa, his press officer. I suggested organising something so that we could all get to know him. Rosa replied that Kimi was enthusiastic about the idea, but first he wanted to do something with the guys who had worked with him during testing.”
Antonelli did not want to forget the people who had supported him during the preceding months.
“He was very thoughtful about that. He wanted to make sure he met up with the people from the testing programme first, the ones who had accompanied him up to that point. Then he would get to know everyone else.”
When he finally arrived in the race team’s garage, the process of getting to know everyone was remarkably quick.
“After a couple of days, he already knew everyone’s name. And that’s incredible when you think about how many things he had to learn at the same time: a new car, how the team operated, the procedures and working with the engineers. Yet he still found the time to get to know every single person.”
That attitude appears to extend to the entire Antonelli family. Nathan Tupper explained that Marco Antonelli has also developed a spontaneous and affectionate relationship with the mechanics.
“You might be working away and suddenly someone hugs you from behind. You turn around and discover it’s Marco! That’s just how he is. They’re a very open, very affectionate family. They make you feel part of their world.”
Callum Wooldridge remembers the young driver he first met at the beginning of 2025.
“He was still a little shy and needed to build his confidence. As the months passed, he opened up more and more. Today he’s not shy any more, he jokes with everyone. But in reality, he’s still the same person. He’s simply learnt to feel at home.”
“By now, he’s one of the family. He behaves exactly like the rest of us. And the nice thing is that his attitude doesn’t change depending on the results. Whether he’s had a good day or a bad one, he’s always the same guy.”
Melbourne 2026: The Mercedes mechanics’ remarkable qualifying recovery
Life inside the Mercedes garage is not just about practical jokes and laughter. Ash Jones recalled what happened at Melbourne at the beginning of the 2026 Formula 1 season, when Antonelli heavily damaged his car during FP3. The mechanics faced a race against time to repair the Mercedes in time for qualifying.
“After qualifying, I went to speak to him,” Jones recalled. “He told me: I have no idea how you managed to get my car back on the track. He genuinely couldn’t believe it.”
Antonelli’s second place on the starting grid made the day even more special. “He was enormously grateful for what we’d done. He kept thanking us. That’s something that has stayed with me.”
The episode helps explain why the Mercedes mechanics became so emotionally invested in Antonelli’s world championship campaign.
“When Kimi has a bad day, we feel bad too,” Wooldridge explained. “Whether the problem is down to him or the car doesn’t really make much difference. We’re so close that we all experience the same emotions together. It’s like being on a rollercoaster.”
From Monza and Austin victories to the 2026 F1 world championship
For Ash Jones, the moment he truly began believing Antonelli could become world champion came with his victory at Monza, achieved after starting from the back of the grid. Wooldridge instead chose Austin, where Antonelli converted an unexpected pole position into a victory managed with impressive maturity.
That United States Grand Prix triumph proved a major moment in his championship campaign, with Toto Wolff praising Antonelli’s performance as he moved closer to the title.
Nathan Tupper’s most powerful memory was the emotion surrounding Antonelli’s maiden Formula 1 victory in China. Each mechanic had a different moment that stood out, reflecting how closely they had followed the young driver’s progress.
Franck Bougeard, who first met Antonelli as a teenager taking his initial steps in Formula 1 machinery, preferred to look at the entire journey.
“It’s incredible to think how much he’s grown in such a short time. We knew he had talent, but I didn’t think he would get this far so quickly.”
A Formula 1 world champion who has never lost his playful side
Perhaps no comment captures Antonelli’s personality better than one from Bougeard.
“It’s difficult not to like him. Even if you woke up one morning thinking you didn’t want to put up with Kimi that day, as soon as you met him, you’d change your mind. He’s got a great sense of humour and loves teasing people. He gives you the feeling that he’s genuinely enjoying what he does.”
Antonelli’s story is remarkable because of its contrasts. There was the boy with untidy hair arriving for his first Formula 1 tests, the driver who apologised profusely after destroying a chassis while his father told him off and his mother worried about him, and now the 20-year-old world champion who still wanders around the garage playing jokes on his mechanics.
He has grown, learnt to handle pressure and established himself as an important figure within Mercedes, without losing the spontaneity that characterised his earliest days in the team’s development programme.
His mechanics have watched an extraordinary talent develop. They have rebuilt his cars after accidents, shared his disappointments, celebrated his first victories and experienced the tension of a championship battle that had seemed almost impossible just a few months earlier.
Then, on Sunday evening in Mexico City, came the hugs and tears. They were not simply the celebrations of a team that had won a Formula 1 world championship. They were the emotions of people who had watched a young man grow up, got to know him personally and ultimately become deeply fond of him.
The world championship had only arrived at the end of that journey. Kimi, their Kimi, had won them over long before.
More news about Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes
- Kimi Antonelli reflects on his emotional F1 world title triumph
- Marco Antonelli reveals when he knew his son could become F1 world champion
- Toto Wolff praises Kimi Antonelli following his championship victory
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