Is the FIA right to change the Super Licence rules for Kimi Antonelli?
Every Formula 1 driver must adhere to specific criteria to be granted a Super Licence. That has been tweaked to enable the early debut of 17 year-old Mercedes prospect, Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Since he was mooted as a potential replacement for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, the focus on Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been on whether or not he would make an early Formula 1 debut.
The 17 year-old was initially not eligible for an FIA Super Licence due to the strict criteria outlined in the International Sporting Code (ISC). Two tweaks to those rules could now see one of the most exciting promotions to F1 since Max Verstappen.
At the start of the season, there was talk of Antonelli making an early graduation to Williams midway through 2024 in place of the underperforming Logan Sargeant. The American will likely lose his seat in 2025, with Carlos Sainz lined up as a target to replace him.
The mood from Antonelli’s camp initially was to see out the Formula 2 season, giving him a chance to develop at a reasonable pace. As Mercedes' form tailed off more than expected, the prospect of him being promoted was getting closer to reality.
The logic is that it’s easier for him to come in at a young age with little expectations, rather than being thrust into the hot seat against George Russell. Although his F2 season has got off to a tough start, the young Italian has since impressed during his two in-season tests at Imola and the Red Bull Ring in both old and current machinery.
In May it was reported to media by the FIA that an unnamed team had made a request for dispensation, and it appears the latest rule tweaks are aimed at being able to fulfil that shortly.
The latest draft of the ISC has an amendment to Article 13.1, which now has the added line: “At the sole discretion of the FIA, a driver judged to have recently and consistently demonstrated outstanding ability and maturity in single-seater formula car competition may be granted a Super Licence at the age of 17 years old.”
Additionally, Article 13.2 now omits the requirement for a driver to need a full and up-to-date driver’s licence. It’s quite an extraordinary turn of events, considering the governing body refused the application of Colton Herta in 2022 when Red Bull attempted to get the IndyCar star in the AlphaTauri for 2023.
The difference between Herta and Antonelli is that the latter has amassed the required 40 points to be eligible for a licence from his success in the junior formula ladder. How can a driver who has contested four Indy 500’s (at that stage), which has it’s own strict rookie criteria, be refused entry?
IndyCar has historically been undervalued by the FIA. Although you get the same amount of points for winning the F2 championship (40) as IndyCar (40), the distribution is vastly different. Third in F2 still gains a driver 40 points, but third in IndyCar only get 20. Even drivers that finish fourth in F2 still get 30, which means a Friday Practice licence could earn them a full super licence - the route Sargeant took in 2022.
Herta only had 32 points in 2022 after finishing seventh, third, and fifth in the IndyCar standings the previous three years. After becoming IndyCar’s youngest winner and amassing seven victories up to that point, it made a mockery of the system introduced under Jean Todt.
The decision to change the current criteria while keeping the same points allocation across championships makes further contempt of an already flawed system. It has likely been taken to provide a ‘feel good’ story amid controversy within the governing body, which has been at loggerheads with F1 Management since Ben Sulayem was elected in 2021.
Although the FIA has still promoted its road safety activities, notably through its ‘Presidents Awards’ at the recent conference in Uzbekistan, much of the ‘Action for Road Safety’ campaign often seen on banners at F1 races has been abolished.
Perhaps this justifies the decision to no longer require drivers to have a public road licence or be 18 years-old, since F1 drivers are not the faces of a road safety campaign. The updated rules also state drivers must have “consistently demonstrated outstanding ability and maturity” in single seater championships to be granted dispensation, meaning it will be difficult to rush a driver through based on results alone.
The argument has long been ‘if you’re fast enough, you’re good enough’ which is what F1 should be about for promoting young talent. It’s what got Verstappen to where he is in the first place, along with Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.
With Antonelli, his unbridled potential comes with considerable risk.
Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, is still living with the aftermath of letting Verstappen slip through his grasp in 2015. This was during the height of the Nico Rosberg and Hamilton title battle when he was not willing to make way for the young Dutchman with an early fast track.
Red Bull could offer him this with a guaranteed seat in 2014 in their junior team. The rest is history.
It’s a lucrative scenario for Mercedes given its recent struggles mirroring that of Red Bull at the start of the hybrid era. For Wolff, it allows him to show that he saw the future 12 years ago while proving that the Silver Arrows can return to being a title-winning juggernaut.
The NIBs
FIA eases concerns over safety of 2026 cars
Active aerodynamics has been one of the main talking points since the FIA introduced their 2026 chassis concept.
The new low- and high-drag configurations were revealed as the main tools to enable drivers to race on straights, while keeping close through the corners. The plans drew some attention for their safety, but FIA technical director Jan Monchaux has offered an explanation to ease any concerns.
“The approach on failure analysis and the system will be subject to the same approach done back in the day with the DRS," Monchaux told media.
"We'll have the same extremely rigorous approach, making sure that the system, once deployed for the first time during testing, will be doing what it's supposed to do and not subject to constant reliability issues or safety issues.
"That a few teams might have a few hiccups in the first winter test is to be expected, but I genuinely think the experience gained over the years on the DRS should be perfectly transferable.
Teams warn ‘ship has sailed’ for 2026 engine tweaks
F1 teams hoping for further tweaks to the 2026 power unit regulations have been warned by Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, that the ‘ship has sailed’.
The deadline for signing off the regulations is 30th June, although there is a provision in the F1 Sporting Regulations to extend this to October providing all manufacturers who have entered support such an extension.
Wolff is among those who have voiced his viewpoint after the FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis suggested that manufacturers could be open to modifications.
"On the power unit side, the ship has sailed,” said Wolff. "There are teams that feel they are on the back foot, and there are other teams that will feel, and OEMs, that they have done a good job. That's the normal kind of wrestling on regulations.”