(Motorsport-Total.com) – It feels like an eternity since an Italian driver last arrived in Monza as the World Championship leader. In 1953, the Italian Grand Prix was the ninth and final race of the season, and Alberto Ascari crowned himself world champion despite a retirement in the last lap. Now, 73 years later, his compatriot Kimi Antonelli leads the current points table in a Mercedes.
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It is hardly surprising that the passionate Tifosi secretly dream that Antonelli will one day become champion with Ferrari. “I am Italian myself,” Antonelli grins when asked about Ferrari. “I know how emotional we are and how quickly we can get excited about such daydreams. Sometimes a little too quickly.”
“This talk will always exist, but as much as I admire Ferrari as an incredible brand, I am very happy where I am. I am very happy at Mercedes because they are the ones who gave me the chance when I was still a child. And I feel like I still have a lot to give back,” the 20-year-old makes it clear that a team change is currently not a concrete topic for him.
However, a cockpit could become available at Ferrari in the foreseeable future. Lewis Hamilton, seven-time world champion, is currently experiencing a second spring. But whether he will extend his reportedly running contract until the end of 2027 remains uncertain. Hamilton will be 43 years old at the start of the 2028 season.
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“Anything is possible,” Hamilton himself says, when asked about the Italian dream of an Antonelli move to Ferrari at the FIA press conference on Thursday in Monza. However, he does not consider such transfer ideas very realistic, because: “Toto will not do a devil to let him go too soon.” And Hamilton must know, after all, he and his former team boss Toto Wolff still maintain a good personal relationship.
Hamilton, on the other hand, understands why such ideas are currently being debated around the Monza weekend: “Ferrari is Ferrari. For Italians, in my perception, there is primarily the Pope – and Ferrari. And pasta and pizza and family.” And he puts the Antonelli enthusiasm into perspective when he says: “The truth is that there are many great drivers who could drive for Ferrari in the future.”
Antonelli, Hamilton says, “has done an incredible job this year. (…) He has done everything that needed to be done. And he is still at the very beginning, which is remarkable. That he is already so consistent at such a young age, making such progress, is amazing. And he carries no ballast with him and is hungry and fit. As it usually is when you are 19.”
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