Andrea Kimi Antonelli will take the vacant Mercedes seat for F1 2025, replacing Lewis Hamilton, the team have confirmed.

Mercedes announced the promotion for their highly-rated teenage prodigy at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where Antonelli crashed on his on his grand prix practice debut for the team.

Antonelli’s graduation to a works Mercedes seat has been expected for some time, with the team giving up on their ambitious pursuit of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and overlooking more experienced options such as Carlos Sainz.

The Italian, who only turned 18 last weekend, will take the seat currently occupied by seven-time world champion Hamilton, who is joining Ferrari next season, and become teammates with George Russell.

The announcement brings to an end months of speculation about who might replace Hamilton after the 39-year-old Briton sensationally announced in February that he would be quitting Mercedes in order to make a blockbuster Ferrari switch.

Antonelli has been part of Mercedes’ junior programme for several years and has enjoyed a meteoric rise up the single-seater ladder. He won both the Italian F4 and ADAC F4 championships in 2022, before claiming two Formula Regional titles the following year.

He bypassed Formula 3 and moved straight into Formula 2 for 2024 but endured a difficult start to the season amid Prema’s struggles for competitiveness.

However, breakthrough sprint and feature race victories at Silverstone and Hungary have since followed, moving Antonelli up to seventh in the championship, 78 points behind series leader Isack Hadjar.