{"id":590066,"date":"2026-04-08T10:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590066\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T10:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:51:09","slug":"dad-didnt-want-me-to-start-racing-admits-new-f1-points-leader-antonelli-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590066\/","title":{"rendered":"Dad didn\u2019t want me to start racing admits new F1 points leader Antonelli \u2013 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s<\/a> father is also a racer but was reluctant for his son to get into motorsport.<\/p>\n

The new Formula 1 championship leader said his father changed his mind when he saw how eager he was to start racing.<\/p>\n

Antonelli credited his arrival in F1 to his father Marco, who runs the GT racing team Antonelli Motorsport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was thanks to my dad,\u201d Antonelli told the BBC<\/a>. \u201cHe has been a racing driver himself and he still is. He\u2019s been running for many, many years his own racing team and it got me into motorsport.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was very little, I used to spend time with him at the race track during his race weekends, and from then I started to build a passion for motorsport.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described how his father did not want him to start racing to begin with.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, to be fair, initially he didn\u2019t want me to race, because he knows how motorsport can be amazing, but at the same time can be brutal. He faced it himself as well, the brutal side of motorsport, and he didn\u2019t want me to get affected by it. He didn\u2019t want me to get too disappointed about difficult moments and so on, so he wanted to kind of protect me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Antonelli said his father changed his mind \u201cwhen he saw I had so much passion for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"George<\/a>The Shanghai circuit commentator got Antonelli\u2019s name wrong\u201cHe saw that I really cared about it. He didn\u2019t have to push for it. It was me pushing for it, so that\u2019s when he understood that probably I will become a racing driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

His performances in karting caught the eye of former Formula 1 team boss Gian Carlo Minardi. He initiated the first contact between the Antonelli family and the Mercedes team he now drives for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all started thanks to the Minardi family because they sent a message to Toto [Wolff, Mercedes team principal] about me. Then obviously Toto got interested.<\/p>\n

\u201c[At the] end of 2017 he sent over Gwen [Lagrue], he\u2019s the head of the junior programme, and they saw that there was some potential and decided to get me into the academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an incredible moment because I remember being in the car with my dad and I remember receiving the call from Toto and we were together and that call was about me getting into the programme and I think it was a really special moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Antonelli scored his first grand prix victory in China where the trackside announcer incorrectly introduced him as \u2018Kimi Raikkonen<\/a>\u2018. The Mercedes driver is not named after the 2007 world champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously Andrea Kimi Antonelli is quite long, the name, but I think everyone calls me Kimi because he\u2019s a very well-known name in the world of motorsport,\u201d acknowledged Antonelli, who said he prefers to use his full name where possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, we made this box for charity to give away, and initially they wanted to put \u2018Kimi Antonelli\u2019, but I asked to put \u2018Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019 because at the end of the day that\u2019s my full name. Of course, I\u2019m more known as Kimi than Andrea, but I think it\u2019s important as well that I show my full name.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, in the world of racing, they only call me Kimi, which I\u2019m fine with it, but at home, my closest friends call me Andrea.\u201d<\/p>\n

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