Mercedes are set to hand Andrea Kimi Antonelli his 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 a💮s he looks to impress Mercedes ahead of ꦫa possible debut 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 motorsport after just one yea🧸r in single-seaters.

He will continue to race in F2 with Italian outfit Prema in 2024, racing alongside Ferrar♒i junior Oliver Bearman.

On the whole, Antonelli has got the better of Bearman, out-performing him in🃏 Bಞahrain 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 ඣHamilton would be leaving f▨or Ferrari, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff didn’t rule out putting him in the car if he impresses.

"We got that curveball thrown at us wܫith 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 our junior academy since he was 11 and ♕we have had great pleasure in watching him grow as a young man and growing through the ranks.

"But I also want to tak🌠e a little bit of pressure off him. He's just turned 17. He's won everything he needed to win in his rookie season, but I think 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 had a difficult te🌼st in the first days in Bahrain 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 i💃n Formula 1 available for next year or so and this is all going to come into the equation when deciding on the driver line-up for next year, but that's not going to happen anytime soon."