Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli has revealed he had a sneaky start to life in F1 – when he was a ‘stowaway’ in the paddock at Hockenheim over a decade ago.
The Italian makes his full F1 debut for the Brackley-based team at the Australian Grand Prix in March, at which point he will become one of the youngest drivers to grace the championship in its 75-year history.
As arguably the most highly-touted rookie in a field of six, Antonelli will garner considerable attention in Melbourne, a far cry from the first time he saw the insides of an F1 paddock’s walls.
Although he became a regular in the Mercedes garage last term amid his sole F2 campaign and in preparation for his step up to F1, that was not the case all those years ago.
It appears to have been quite the experience for the 18-year-old, who was attending the 2014 German Grand Prix with his father, Marco, who was racing in the Porsche Supercup series at the time.
At seven years of age, Antonelli was too small, so his dad came up with an ingenious and innovative way to get his son past paddock security.
“It was Hockenheim in 2014,” Antonelli recalled. “I couldn’t get into the paddock because I was too little.
“My dad decided to hide me inside a stack of tyres and wheel me through on a trolley. We put an umbrella on top to make me harder to see.
“I got through and into the pit lane, and my dad’s friend got me a pass. I had a look around for an hour and it was such a cool experience – but we always laugh at the story of the trolley.”
