Mercedes presents Antonelli with a home simulator and steering wheel

Ahead of his debut season in 2025, Italian young sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli has received a home simulator and steering wheel from his future team Mercedes to prepare himself for the forthcoming season.

Mercedes announced on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix that their F2 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli will replace Lewis Hamilton, who had confirmed his departure from the team back in February.

As part of Formula One's rule that requires every team to run a young driver in a free practice session twice a year, Mercedes elected to provide Antonelli with his first run in an official F1 session on his home turf at Monza. However, the Italian sensation crashed into the barriers at Parabolica only on his second flying lap.

Speaking to Autosport.com, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has hinted that the Brackley-based outfit has failed to assess the pressure Antonelli might be under at Monza.

"I wouldn’t say it was a mistake, but I think we weren’t completely right in assessing the pressures that he could find himself under. Why that is, is that we talked about it, and how to approach the session.

"He has been brilliant in testing. He has never put a single foot wrong in the many thousands of kilometres that he’s done.

The 18-year-old driver has already completed several test outings with Mercedes 2021 and 2022 F1 cars at the Red Bull Ring, in Imola and in Silverstone. In addition, he stayed at Spa F2 round after the Belgian Grand Prix to complete another test session with the eight-time world champion team.

Speaking of his experiences, Antonelli said: “However, in the last two days of testing at Spa, I improved the race pace considerably, and that pushed Mercedes to sign me.”

“In fact, before the summer break, I had a call with [Toto] Wolff, my engineer, and other people from Mercedes. It was there they told me that I would be one of their drivers in 2025. It was a good moment,” Antonelli added.

“Definitely winning some races [next year] would be a dream. It won’t be easy, because all the teams will have a competitive car, so it will be very difficult, but this is the target.”

“In terms of speed, I think it won’t be a problem. The only thing where there will be a lot of work to do is about how to manage the weekend in the best possible way and also to learn all the procedures.”

Antonelli has revealed that Mercedes will present him with a Formula 1 steering wheel and a simulator, which will enable him to practice race starts and familiarize himself with the buttons.

“Mercedes is going to send me a steering wheel and a small simulator at home to learn how to do the race starts, so I will be able to practice,” Antonelli explained.

“The steering wheel is the Formula 1 steering wheel, so it will help me memorise the buttons as well. At high speeds, you don’t have time to look at the steering wheel. You have to know it by heart.”