"A child came up to me and said hello, I thought he had lost his dad": Mercedes' director on the first time he met Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes Technical Director James Allison shared a hilarious anecdote of his first meeting with Kimi Antonelli. The Italian driver is arguably the most exciting rookie in F1 in years due to his stunning junior career, which saw him win in every category apart from F2 last year.

The 18-year-old attracted a lot of eyeballs when he was announced as the replacement for the outgoing seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton last year. Amid the strong buzz surrounding him, Antonelli has made a solid start to his F1 career and even got his first pole position at the Miami Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying.

In a clip floating on social media platform X taken from the Netflix Documentary 'The Seat', James Allison recalled his sweet but funny first meeting with Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes garage and reflected:

“You want me to be honest? My first encounter with Kimi was — I was just sitting at my desk working, and a child came up to my desk and said hello. I thought they’d lost their dad. When he shook my hand, he had the same strength that all drivers have in their hands. And I thought, 'This is a driver. It’s Kimi.'”

Apart from inheriting Hamilton's seat, the Bologna-based driver also inherited Peter Bonnington as his race engineer, who led the former to six of his seven drivers' titles in 12 years with the German team.

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Lewis Hamilton explains his tribute to Kimi Antonelli

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton stated that he felt a 'warmth' in his heart when Kimi Antonelli got his pole position in the Sprint Qualifying last weekend due to the former's association with the Italian team and his ex-race engineer Peter Bonnington.

Speaking with F1.com, Hamilton explained his tribute that he posted for Antonelli and said:

“I posted because it made me… I saw the video of Bono and Kimi, and Toto, and it genuinely just brought warmth to my heart. I’ve been in that team for a long, long time. Bono is just the best, and I know there were a lot of question [marks] around whether or not to take on a more experienced driver."

“To then continue on and continue to work hard and get a pole – it kind of silences all the critics. I love to see that in an underdog. It’s such a great story. I would just say to continue doing what he’s doing. I think he knows what he’s doing – and just continue to enjoy it," Hamilton added.

Coincidentally, Kimi Antonelli is just one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the 2025 driver standings with 48 points and sits in P6 and has a gap of seven points to the latter after six races and two Sprints this year.