Mercedes raised a few eyebrows when it fast-tracked its junior phenom Andrea Kimi Antonelli's Formula 1 debut to replace Lewis Hamilton. For a teenager who had only made his first tentative steps in single-seater racing in 2021 and had skipped the F3 level altogether, the challenge doesn't get much bigger than representing a top team and stepping in a seven-time world champion's shoes – even if Mercedes was keen to play down its expectations of the 19-year-old.
It did Antonelli and Mercedes a world of good, then, when the Italian took fourth on his Melbourne debut and backed that up with sixth in China and a pole in the Miami sprint. But Antonelli's youthful inexperience did catch up to him when F1 headed back to Europe and Mercedes introduced an unsuccessful suspension update that derailed both Antonelli and high-flying team-mate George Russell. And while Russell had enough experience to deal with the setback, it sent Antonelli into a tailspin.
