Ferrari had Kimi Antonelli in Maranello at the age of 11. They decided he was too young to sign. Nine years on, with the Italian the youngest world champion in F1 history after winning the title in a Mercedes, Piero Ferrari is pitching to bring him home.
The vice-chairman and roughly 10 percent shareholder of the company founded by his father spoke to Swiss outlet Blick.
“I want nothing more than to see Kimi in the red overalls. He reminds me of our Niki Lauda at every race!”
Antonelli clinched the 2026 title with third place at the Mexico City Grand Prix on 1 November. He is 20, and the first Italian to win the drivers’ championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
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Wolff points to Bearman
Toto Wolff did not wait for Piero to speak. The day after Antonelli’s title run in Mexico City, the Mercedes team principal pre-empted any Ferrari lament about missing out on the Italian.
“If he’d been at Ferrari or Red Bull, there would have been doubts,” Wolff told reporters. “They would never have put him in the best car straight away and would have parked him in a small team, like Bearman.”
Oliver Bearman, a British driver on Ferrari’s books, is in his second season at Haas and has said he wants to stay with the team in 2027, though no new deal has been announced. Wolff framed Antonelli’s rise as the payoff of Mercedes’ own system: a schedule, dedicated coaches, F1 testing mileage and a career financed entirely by the team.
The academy that turned him down
The claim Piero is now trying to overturn has been on the record in Italy since before the title. According to Antonelli’s father Marco, the Ferrari Driver Academy’s then-head Massimo Rivola wanted to bring Kimi in during his karting days, but the final call went the other way under then-team principal Maurizio Arrivabene.
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“He was too young to be properly evaluated,” was Ferrari’s explanation to the family, Marco Antonelli has said.
Antonelli joined Mercedes’ junior programme in 2019 at the age of 12 and stayed inside that structure all the way to the senior race seat, replacing Lewis Hamilton for 2025. The championship came in his second F1 season, with four rounds still to run.
Four races to finish the season
Antonelli is under contract at Mercedes, and Wolff has repeatedly described him as central to the team’s long-term plans. Four Grands Prix remain on the 2026 calendar: São Paulo on 8 November, Las Vegas on 21 November, Qatar on 29 November and Abu Dhabi on 6 December.
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