XXL track record, unrivaled passion, serious injuries… Discover the story of Andrea Kimi Antonelli

He may have been born in 2006, at a time when Iceman was setting the house on fire. Formula 1, don't see any connection between his middle name and a certain Kimi Räikkönen. “My parents were looking for a middle name, and a family friend, shortly before I was born, found Kimi, it's that simple." So much the worse for our quest for F1 heritage or lineage! “You can call me Kimi, Andrea or Andrea Kimi, the young boy, who was 16 years old when we first spoke to him, told us. My friends call me Kimi!” His other point in common with the Finnish legend from Ferrari ? A smashing debut in car ! A year after Ollie Bearman in 2021, Antonelli had indeed achieved the feat of winning both the Italian F4 title and the ADAC F4 title, the German equivalent.

An achievement that should not be underestimated, especially when you know that his initial commitment in Germany was supposed to be temporary. Except that the boy had distinguished himself so much in the first four German rounds (admittedly in the process of becoming impoverished), that the Prema team, which was not contractually supposed to compete in the last two meetings, had decided to line up in the final round of the year at the Nürburgring. And this, in order to allow Andrea Kimi, still in the lead despite his absence at the Lausitzring, to go for the title. A brilliant result that confirmed his phenomenal qualities demonstrated until then in kartingComing from a family of motorsport enthusiasts, Kimi grew up on the circuits in contact with his father, Marco, a former GT driver and boss of the AKM team (Italian F4 and GT Italy) since mid-XNUMX.