Final week the FIA opened the door for Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli to make his Components 1 debut earlier than his 18th birthday.
Mercedes could not have been behind the request to overview the licence guidelines and Antonelli just isn’t about to instantly begin racing a W15. However he’s into consideration for a spot on the crew subsequent 12 months because it wants a alternative for Lewis Hamilton.
Crew principal Toto Wolff has been at pains to downplay the crew’s expectations of a driver which has been a part of its junior programme for years. Protecting a lid on expectations has proved tough, nonetheless as all the pieces is aligning for Antonelli to make a remarkably fast ascent right into a high seat.
Final week’s improvement confirmed time is of the essence. The FIA’s new rule permits it to grant a dispensation for 17-year-olds to acquire an excellent licence to compete in F1 if it believes they’re as much as scratch. However there are solely six grands prix till Antonelli turns 18 anyway – the festivities coincide with the Zandvoort spherical – when no dispensation would have been required. The identical reasoning applies to the opposite rule modified final week, dropping the requirement for tremendous licence holders to have a highway automotive licence, which Antonelli couldn’t receive in Italy till he reaches 18.
The plain inference to attract is that Antonelli can be on the beginning grid for a Components 1 race between now and his subsequent birthday. That may make him solely the second 17-year-old to race within the collection since Max Verstappen, whose debut 9 years in the past prompted the creation of the very rule the FIA has now devised a method of circumventing.
Because of the timing of the change within the guidelines, it’s unlikely Antonelli may make his debut this weekend. Nonetheless it could be no shock to see him seem within the opening observe session, as his Prema Components 2 crew mate Oliver Bearman will for Haas.
The identical two guidelines adjustments for race licences have additionally been made for the ‘free practice-only tremendous licence’ which Antonelli requires to do that. He already fulfils the requirement of amassing 25 tremendous licence factors.
The route for Antonelli to make his debut in F1 for Mercedes subsequent 12 months subsequently seems clear, if Wolff chooses it: He can spend the remaining two-thirds of the present season serving an apprenticeship in a seat at a buyer crew, broadly anticipated to be the one Logan Sargeant at the moment occupies at Williams, the place he would even be reunited with crew principal James Vowles, whom Antonelli already is aware of properly from Mercedes.
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If Mercedes do then choose him up for 2025, he can be paired with one other product of Mercedes’ junior driver programme, albeit one whose ascent to the manufacturing facility crew was not practically as fast: George Russell.
Whereas Antonelli skipped Components 3 totally, Russell spent three years at that degree (the FIA collection was nonetheless often known as GP3 when he gained the title). Russell additionally served a full 12 months in F2, which seems to be more and more unlikely for Antonelli. After three seasons at Williams, Russell lastly joined Mercedes on the age of 24.
Wolff defined why they didn’t rush Russell’s promotion to Mercedes midway by means of his first season at Williams in 2019:
“I don’t assume that you simply’re given the likelihood to study in a Mercedes since you’re being put in a automotive that is ready to win races and championships in a high-pressure surroundings,” Wolff defined. “And I believe it will possibly go terribly improper for a younger driver that has the expertise to turn out to be a world champion if he’s thrown in that surroundings subsequent to the very best driver of his era who has been who has been with us for seven years. I wouldn’t wish to burn George.”
However these are totally different instances, totally different circumstances and – maybe most significantly – totally different drivers.
When Wolff was talking 5 years in the past, Mercedes had been the crew to beat. Placing an unproven teenager in one in every of their vehicles introduced with it an enormous danger: In the event that they didn’t carry out it may price the crew a championship.
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Mercedes gained 10 of the 12 races earlier than Wolff made that remark. Two of the primary 4 had been gained by the driving force Russell finally changed, Valtteri Bottas, who additionally led the early levels of the championship that 12 months. Mercedes subsequently had little motivation to alter their line-up, in contrast to right now, after they know they’ve a emptiness for subsequent season.
Lastly, there may be the distinction in drivers. Russell earned his place on Mercedes’ younger driver programme – famously – by pitching his case to Wolff. He grafted, gained the championships he wanted to – together with back-to-back GP3 and F2 titles – and earned his stripes in a succession of largely uncompetitive Williams chassis. He shocked on his debut as an alternative choice to Hamilton within the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, a race he deserved to win, and although by that point it was too late to ponder a change of their line-up for the next 12 months.
Antonelli, nonetheless, was backed by Mercedes from a youthful age. His progress to F1 was gaining velocity even earlier than Hamilton’s shock low season announcement – Mercedes determined Antonelli ought to bypass F3 properly earlier than then.
The celebrities have aligned for him now, and whereas the velocity of his ascension has come as a shock for some, Verstappen has proven how properly it will possibly work. That’s the form of uncommon expertise Mercedes suspect they’ve on their arms with Antonelli, which mixed with a change of their circumstances has prompted a change of view on how nice a raffle to tackle youth.
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