Kimi Antonelli will 'definitely' move to Ferrari claims F1 star's friend

Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton and Fred Vasseur in front of a Ferrari background — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Kimi Antonelli will 'definitely' move to Ferrari claims F1 star's friend

Talks of a move to Ferrari for Antonelli have already begun

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Monday 18 May 2026 19:45

The chances of Mercedes F1 star Kimi Antonelli making a move to Ferrari have been labelled as 'definitive' by an acquaintance of the Italian hero.

Antonelli has shot to the top of the drivers' standings in just his second season in sport, making history after claiming his second victory of 2026 at the Japanese Grand Prix, becoming the sport's youngest-ever championship leader. Following the Miami GP earlier this month, the 19-year-old has further solidified his spot at the top of the order, extending his lead over team-mate George Russell to 20 points after claiming his third consecutive career victory.

Russell is the more experienced racer and after finally seeing the back of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in 2025, was hoping to become the Silver Arrows' standout star.

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But it is now the 28-year-old who is on the back foot heading into this weekend's Canadian GP with a point to prove.

Russell took on the role of being the No.1 driver at Mercedes after Hamilton's exit but everyone knows team principal Toto Wolff has a soft spot for his protege Antonelli.

And just as the hype is ramping up around the Italian sensation, so are talks of a future more to Ferrari.

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Antonelli was practically raised through the ranks of the Mercedes F1 junior programme, with Wolff desperate to find the next Max Verstappen having lost out on signing the future four-time champion to Helmut Marko and the Red Bull driver development programme.

When Antonelli was announced as Hamilton's replacement on the same weekend that he crashed during his F1 session debut in front of an Italian crowd, many questioned Wolff's sanity.

But the Austrian is now being vindicated over the choice to promote Antonelli up to big leagues, with the teenager already breaking records at multiple race weekends this season.

So, will Antonelli commit to Mercedes and hope to earn championship success with the Brackley-based squad, or will the kid from Bologna answer the demands of Italian's around the world and finally give them a home hero to root for with the Scuderia.

Antonelli tipped for championship success and future Ferrari switch

In a recent interview with Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport, Olympic champion and Antonelli's countryman Alberto Tomba appeared confident that an eventual move to the Maranello-based F1 team was on the cards for the Mercedes starlet.

Tomba has five Olympic medals to his name, three gold and two silver, and rose to stardom in the 1980s thanks to his prowess and style in Alpine skiing, widely regarded as the greatest Italian talent of all time to grace the slopes.

The 59-year-old has now passed the baton of Italian sporting heroes onto the likes of Antonelli and Tennis superstar Jannik Sinner, and even hails from San Lazzaro di Savena, a town and suburb in Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region (also where Antonelli is from).

Speaking on the recent rise of young Italian athletes, Tomba revealed that he had recently met with Antonelli for lunch, and even saw championship success and a team switch to Ferrari as being possible in the future.

"A guy from my neighborhood: from Bologna. I really like him, we keep in touch, we recently met for lunch on the Riviera," he said.

"Kimi, with that first name, was destined to become a champion. Now he's at Mercedes, and he'll definitely be at Ferrari in the future."

The last Kimi to win a championship was Finnish racing legend Kimi Raikkonen, whose 2007 drivers' title victory also marks the last time a Ferrari driver won the title. The question is, will Antonelli be the one the end the Scuderia's title drought in future?

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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