Who is Kimi Antonelli? Mercedes teenager replacing Lewis Hamilton at Mexican Grand Prix

will get his second FP1 outing of the season on Friday as he replaces for the opening session of the weekend at the .

The 18-year-old sensation is one of the most highly-rated starlets in the paddock and will make his full-time debut in F1 next season, succeeding Hamilton as George Russell's Mercedes team-mate, despite only making his first Formula Two appearance earlier this year.

Antonelli's rise has been a sensational one and the Bologna-born teenager arrives on the scene in F1 under plenty of pressure. The Italian was already a known name among motorsports fanatics during his karting days, and he backed up that hype by winning the Formula Regional European Championship and Italian F4 titles in 2023.

This won't be Antonelli's first experience of a Grand Prix weekend though. He made his FP1 debut at his home race, the , earlier this summer, but after setting a blisteringly quick opening lap, the teenager suffered a high-speed crash at the Parabolica, ending his session early.

Team principal Toto Wolff later admitted that selecting Antonelli for his first F1 session at his home race may have put undue pressure on the F2 starlet. "I wouldn't say it was a mistake, but I think we weren't completely right in assessing the pressures that he could find himself under," he said.

"Why that is, is that we talked about it, and how to approach the session. He has been brilliant in testing. He has never put a single foot wrong in the many thousands of kilometres that he's done.

"But it's a different ball game if you're an Italian driver, you're 18 years old in Monza and it's your first opportunity. Maybe if we had considered that as a risk factor against the set of data we had from him, probably it would have been wise to give him an FP1 that would have been in a totally different time zone than Italy. But he will learn a lot from that."

With his future at Mercedes assured, Antonelli can relax for the remaining two rounds of the F2 championship. However, with a third-place finish still a realistic possibility, he still has plenty left to fight for as he bids farewell to Prema Racing.

Antonelli will have at least one familiar face on the 2025 F1 grid with Prema Racing team-mate Oliver Bearman also graduating from F2. The Brit will team up with Esteban Ocon in an all-new Haas line-up after impressing in his two substitute appearances this season.