Source:REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
[Saba Sports News] Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli has publicly said he hopes to team up with Max Verstappen for an endurance race, and revealed that he has already applied for a test opportunity on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The Antonelli family has deep ties to sports car racing: his father, Marco Antonelli, is a highly capable professional driver with decades of experience in GT and TCR competition. Kimi Antonelli himself is also very interested in these events; in 2023 he represented the family-run AKM team in a round of the Italian GT Championship, taking pole and winning on his Misano debut. Verstappen will make his Nürburgring 24 Hours debut this year, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 fielded by the Winward team, a development that has renewed F1 drivers’ interest in sports-car racing. Having just won his first career Grand Prix at the Chinese GP, Antonelli said that although his primary focus remains F1, he very much looks forward to the chance to race in the same car as Verstappen.
The editor believes Antonelli’s wish to pair with Verstappen in an endurance race is a natural extension of his career and a sign of healthy interaction within the F1 community. Although team commitments and schedule conflicts make it unlikely in the short term, continued investment by both sides in GT racing increases the likelihood of future collaboration.