Mercedes-AMG has confirmed that Kimi Antonelli will be racing with the team next season, alongside George Russell.

When the shock transfer of Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari was announced, there was great intrigue over who would take the seat of the seven-time world champion. And when Carlos Sainz signed up with Williams, it was all but confirmed that Antonelli would be driving for Mercedes-AMG.

After winning the ADAC and the Italian F4 championships last year, he skipped F3 and went straight to F2, where he currently sits sixth in the standings with two race wins.

Despite Antonelli’s crash in Monza during Free Practice 1, Mercedes-AMG team principal Toto Wolff quickly gave reassurance.

“These moments, they will happen and they will continue to happen next year, but there will also be a lot of highlights,” said Wolff. “I think what we’ve seen today is that we’d rather have a problem with slowing him down rather than making him faster, because from what we’ve seen from one-and-a-half laps is astonishing.”

Do you think Kimi Antonelli is overhyped, or could he be the next Max Verstappen?