Ted Kravitz suggests 16-year-old Mercedes driver has huge future ahead of him

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Journalist Ted Kravitz has suggested that young Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli could be a future F1 champion.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, Kravitz was speculating on Mercedes’s future driver line-up.

The latest rumours coming out this week linked Lewis Hamilton with a move away from the team.

Ferrari are reportedly keen to offer Hamilton a chance to drive for them next season.

Whether the 38-year-old thinks that’s the right move or not will likely be decided later in the season.

Hamilton would love nothing more than to win a record-breaking eighth world title with Mercedes.

Although he would likely move teams to achieve that if he had to, Ferrari don’t look that much quicker than Mercedes right now.

Eventually, Toto Wolff will have to prepare for departure one way or another.

Kravitz has now said that the team might already have a future F1 champion in their ranks in the form of Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

The 16-year-old has a huge future of him and is the longest-serving member of the Mercedes Junior Team right now.

Antonelli could be a future F1 champion

Talking about Mercedes’s long-term options, Kravitz said: “[Andrea] Kimi Antonelli looks like he’s going to be a champion of the future, he’s a Mercedes junior.”

Mercedes signed Andrea Kimi Antonelli to their junior programme in 2018.

He currently drives in the Formula Regional Championships in both Europe and the Middle East.

During his time with the team, he’s won several karting championships and two Formula 4 titles.

His most likely progression after this year will be stepping up to FIA Formula 3, following in the footsteps of current Mercedes youngsters Frederik Vesti and Paul Aron.

The Italian youngster has been karting since the age of seven before making the switch to single-seaters a few weeks after turning 15.

His father Marco Antonelli was also a racing driver, primarily driving Touring Cars before co-owning his own racing team.

There’s plenty of hype around Antonelli and Mercedes will hope they’ve unearthed a future F1 champion.

He’s still got a very long way to go before he’s behind the wheel of a Silver Arrow in Formula 1.