Mercedes have confirmed that 18-year-old Italian driver Kimi Antonelli will join the team to replace Lewis Hamilton for the 2025 Formula One season. Antonelli will partner George Russell when Hamilton joins Ferrari next year.

Antonelli, who has been a Mercedes junior driver since 2019, had long been expected to be promoted to the team and his new role was confirmed in a statement issued on Saturday morning by Mercedes at the Italian Grand Prix.

“It is an amazing feeling to be announced as a Mercedes works driver alongside George for 2025,” said Antonelli. “Reaching F1 is a dream I’ve had since I was a small boy; I want to thank the team for the support they’ve given me in my career so far and the faith they’ve shown in me. I’m also really excited to become George’s teammate. He came through the team’s junior programme just like myself and is someone I have a huge amount of respect for.”

The young driver crashed out of his first competitive run in an F1 car, in practice at Monza after just five laps but the team principal Toto Wolff said he would rather have the problem of slowing down a fast driver than vice versa.

Antonelli, who was born in Bologna, is still very young having only turned 18 last Sunday and has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks. He has taken titles in karting, where he caught Wolff’s attention then in single seaters in the Italian and German F4 series and then the Formula Regional Championship, from which he made the remarkable step of moving up past F3 direct to F2 this season. He has taken two wins in F2 this year and is seventh in the championship.

“Our 2025 driver lineup combines experience, talent, youth and out-and-out raw speed,” said Wolff. “We are excited about what George and Kimi bring to the team both as individual drivers, but also as a partnership. Our new lineup is perfect to open the next chapter in our story. It is also a testament to the strength of our junior programme and our belief in homegrown talent.”

When asked about Antonelli prior to the announcement, Hamilton felt he would make a strong choice for Mercedes. “I said a long time ago that I think that’s who the team should choose moving forwards,” he said. “He’s one of those young, super-talented kids that’s come through. He’s got a bright future ahead of him. I’m really excited to see and watch his progress. I saw a picture earlier on of us, back in, I think, 2018, and he was one of the grid kids. I’m shaking his hand at the front of the grid. So it obviously reminds you how old you are when you have those experiences. I’m looking forward to seeing his growth and his journey through into Formula One.”

Antonelli had an inauspicious opening as he took to the track at Monzalasting only five laps across 10 minutes of the session before he lost the rear at Parabolica. Apparently having problems with tyre temperatures, he flew off to crash into the barriers at approximately 160mph.

He emerged unhurt but it ended his run and left mechanics with work to do on George Russell’s car to prepare it for second practice. They went flat out and the British driver was able to take to the track approximately 20 minutes into the hour of the session.

On track, the day opened well for Max Verstappen. The defending world champion leads McLaren’s Lando Norris by 70 points in the championship but was beaten by the British driver at the last round in Zandvoort by almost 23sec as the McLaren demonstrated a fearsome turn of pace. Verstappen was hopeful his Red Bull would be more suited and better balanced on the low-downforce, high-speed blast at Monza and he was quickest in the first session, 0.228sec up on ­Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Norris in third.

In the second session, truncated when Kevin Magnussen crashed out after 35 minutes, Hamilton was quickest for Mercedes, but only three-thousandths of a second in front of Norris, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in third, while Verstappen made an error on his hot lap and backed out of it, finishing 14th.