Kimi Antonelli is currently driving his second season in Formula 1 with Mercedes and going very strong as he leads the World Drivers' Championship by 50 points going into the summer break. The Italian Youngster is showing his talent on the big stage and with that performance, one question surfaces: Why didn't Ferrari sign Antonelli and give him an F1 shot as the only Italian outfit on the grid?
With Antonelli's current form, Ferrari has shown interest in potentially adding him to their roster in the near future. Toto Wolff however, has put his foot down on that matter. That shouldn't be a surprise as the Mercedes Team Principal has let a major talent slip through his fingers once before in Max Verstappen, a mistake he will not want to make again.
Ferrari is too late to poach Kimi Antonelli from Mercedes
Kimi Antonelli joined the grid last year as a 18 year old who was being directly compared to Max Verstappen in levels of potential. The Italian driver was the replacement of 7 time World Champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes which meant that not only would Antonelli have to figure out how to compete in F1 but we would get to do so at the front of the field!
Despite this, Antonelli was part of the Mercedes Junior Program for quite some time before he got invited into F1. Wolff describes in an interview with RTBF that he was surprised that Antonelli hadn't been scouted by Ferrari many years ago as he showed a lot of promise in junior series:
"We know that Ferrari has interest, but Kimi has been driving for Mercedes since he was 11, if they really wanted him, they should have taken action six or seven years ago. Now they suddenly discover that there is an Italian top driver around. Of course I understand that Ferrari would like to have an Italian in the car, but for us he has been a Mercedes driver for a very long time."
Could Mercedes rivalry change Wolff's position on Antonelli joining Ferrari?
Kimi Antonelli currently leads the Championship by 50 points with Lewis Hamilton in 2nd place and teammate George Russell close behind in 3rd. If Russell comes back from the summer break with peak form, we could see a team battle for the driver's title in 2026.
2026 Drivers’ Standings
Full table →| # | Driver | Team | Wins | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Kimi AntonelliANT | Mercedes | 9 | 390 |
| 2 |  Max VerstappenVER | Red Bull Racing | 3 | 279 |
| 3 |  George RussellRUS | Mercedes | 3 | 262 |
| 4 |  Lewis HamiltonHAM | Ferrari | 1 | 261 |
While this is a dream for many team principals, Toto Wolff has already stated that he does not want a repeat of the Rosberg-Hamilton rivalry from 2016. He stated that he would rather swap out a driver than have to go through that again. Should this become true, a tough decision will have to be made and we could see Antonelli rather than Russell be pushed towards the exit as the '2nd driver' at the team.
