Mercedes are set to hand Andrea 🌠Kimi Antonelli hiဣs first taste of F1 machinery later this month.

According to , the 17-year-old will drive the Mercedes W12 - their 2021 challenger which nearly won the 2021 drivers’ championship with 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton - at Imola on April 16-17.

The two-day test will give Antonelli a chance to acclimatise to F1 machinery as he looks to impress 🌊Mercedes ahead of a possible deb🦩ut next year.

Even before making his first F2 start, the Italian was mooted 🌸as a possible Hamilton replacement.

Antonelli is widely regarded as the biggest talent outside of F1, earning comparisons to 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen, who was famously fast-tracked to the pinnacle of motorsp♋ort after just one year in single-seaters.

He will continue to⛦ race i𝔉n F2 with Italian outfit Prema in 2024, racing alongside Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman.

On th💜e whole,𒉰 Antonelli has got the better of Bearman, out-performing him in Bahrain and Australia.

In Saudi Arabia, Bearman stormed to pole, but was unable to make the most of it as he made his F1 debut with Ferrari, standing in for 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Carlos Sainz.

Speaking about Antonelli when the news broke that Hamilton would b♋e leaving for Ferrari, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff didn’t rule out putting him in the car if he impr🌌esses.

"We got that curveball t🦹hrown at us with Lewis in the beginning of February and I want to do the opposite when choosing the driver for next year," Wolff said.

"It's clear Kimi has been in ouꩵr junior academy since he was 11 and we have had great pleasure in watching h𝕴im grow as a young man and growing through the ranks.

"But I also want to take a little bit of pressure off him. He's just turned 17. He's won everꦜything he needed to win in his rookie season, but I thin💦k he is going to be in Formula 1.

"He's going to be a very, very successful driver in Formula 1. But he hasn't started his Formula 2 campaign yet. They haꦇd a difficult test in the first days in 𒐪Bahrain and we shall see how he develops. That's why I want to want to wait out the first few [F2] races that are actually going to go with Formula 1.

"There are many very good drivers in Formula 1 available for next year or so and this is all going to come into theꦜ equation when deciding on the driver line-up🥃 for next year, but that's not going to happen anytime soon."