Nate SaundersApr 30, 2025, 11:48 AM ET
Formula 1 rookies Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman are the living embodiment of the sport's new generation: fun, focused and living the dream.
Antonelli, 18, has so far appeared undaunted by filling the void left by Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes this year. Ferrari junior Bearman, 19, the most logical long-term prospect to replace the seven-time world champion at the Italian team down the line, has already established himself as a habitual points scorer for the Haas team.
The pair emerged from Formula 2 last season, where they were teammates at Prema. Their friendship goes back to their first races together in the junior categories in 2021. Despite both now being part of an exclusive club of drivers on the uber-competitive F1 grid, it's clear how strong the bond remains between the two teen prodigies.
When Mercedes and Haas freed them up to sit down together with ESPN in Bahrain, it felt less like an interview and more like crashing a conversation between two friends still coming to terms with the remarkable dream they are living out, live and in color. In a paddock increasingly shaped by talk of generational change, Antonelli and Bearman aren't just part of the next wave -- they are the wave: energetic, endearing and already carving out their own fanbases. Antonelli still hasn't finished his final exams. If the likes of Fernando Alonso is the face F1's previous era, still somehow defying time in his 22nd season, then Antonelli and Bearman are its bright, excitable future.
"When he started, I wasn't even in my parents' mind!" Antonelli laughed, referring to Alonso's 2001 debut with Minardi. Bearman, shaking his head, added: "It's scary ... I think before my parents even met, Alonso was already racing in Formula 1, which is crazy."
Antonelli, showing his role as the more mischievous of the two, then grinned. "He'll always be a rookie," he said, a nod to the running online gag that Alonso, even with two world championships and more than two decades of experience to his name, somehow keeps rebranding himself as F1's eternal newcomer. It's a bit of lore that Antonelli, Bearman and fellow rookies Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan and Gabriel Bortoleto riffed on in a viral preseason clip with F1 TV's Laura Winter.
Alonso is far from being one, of course. By the time Bearman and Antonelli were both at the forefront of their parents' minds, Alonso was the man to beat in Formula 1. The Spanish driver was leading the championship on May 8, 2005, when Bearman was born, and again on Aug. 25, 2006, when Antonelli was born.
Bearman, shifting to a more serious tone, added: "To share the track with him, and with Lewis [Hamilton], for example, it's quite incredible actually. These guys have been there for so long and have so much experience. You grow up watching these guys on TV. Lewis was winning everything when we were growing up and now we are racing against him."
Fan favorites in waiting
Bearman's F1 debut came in remarkable circumstances as a stand-in for Ferrari when appendicitis ruled Carlos Sainz out of last year's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Aged 18, he became the youngest Ferrari driver ever and the third youngest to start an F1 race, period. The Englishman was the first person to compete in a Formula 1 race who was born after Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher won his seventh title. The debut was Bearman's coming-of-age moment.
"There's so many new fans," Antonelli said, before turning to the Haas driver. "I mean, this guy, when he drove in Saudi last year ... I think it was crazy, no?"
Bearman nodded. "I doubled in [social media] following overnight. It was crazy".
Where possible, both have tried to keep their social posts uniquely their own.
"It's 50-50," Antonelli said when asked who does his socials these days. "I do like the stupid posts, you know."
The impact of the new fanbase was obvious to see in the opening rounds of this year. At the season's second race, in China, Antonelli was voted Driver of the Day by F1's viewing audience after finishing sixth. Antonelli's reaction to the award immediately after the race went viral.
When told by Peter Bonnington, Antonelli's new race engineer, the young Italian teen replied: "Really? That's ... weird." Mercedes boss Toto Wolff himself radioed the Italian, saying: "I think it's your looks. And your target group."
When the award came up during our interview, he chuckled and looked back at Bearman.
"I was so pissed off about that," Bearman laughed.
"I thought about you when I got it," Antonelli smiled back in reply. "But I expected to get it in Australia [the opening race]."
0:58
Antonelli's ridiculous photographic memory for lap times wows Bearman
Kimi Antonelli wows fellow rookie Ollie Bearman with his ability to recall his lap times.
Bearman, who had finished eighth in Shanghai for the less competitive Haas team, quipped back: "I was like, 'This guy is stealing my Driver of the Day!'"
Bearman can likely rest easy on that front. Given how both have started their F1 careers, there will be plenty more opportunities to steal the fan-chosen award from each other. After a qualifying crash ruined his Haas debut at the Australian Grand Prix, Bearman has been superb, adding to his points-scoring finish in Shanghai with two more in Japan and Bahrain for the improving American team.
As for Antonelli, while he's not been able to match the high level of experienced teammate George Russell yet, the buzz of excitement about him throughout the paddock is palpable. Hamilton, who Antonelli replaced at Mercedes, has spoken in glowing terms about the young Italian whenever he's had the opportunity. People who have watched Antonelli trackside or followed his onboard footage will tell you the same thing: there are few things quite as thrilling in F1 right now; he drives it like he stole it. Add his infectious personality into the mix and its easy to see why he's already cultivating such a following.
"The fans are super important for the sport and the drivers," Antonelli said. "They are the ones who make the weekend really special."
At that point, Bearman added: "Just come for us."
As was becoming the theme of their back and forth, Antonelli laughed and continued the joke.
"Just come for us, yeah," the Italian said. "Not for anyone else. Hashtag 'Come only for Kimi and Ollie!'"
F1's fans have plenty of reasons to attend races at the moment, of course. The sport's popularity has exploded in recent years, helped massively by the Netflix smash hit "Drive to Survive." Both have seen just how big the following has become having experienced the step up from Formula 2 support races to the F1 main event.
"When we were on the F2 grid, it was only the diehard fans," Bearman said. "But now the grid is insane."
"It's very loud," Antonelli interjected, referencing the music that plays before a grand prix.
"It's a little bit loud," Bearman nodded in reply. "You can hear it when the car is starting pretty much. It's so loud. The bass ... I think it makes the track shake. I think in a few races' time we'll be pretty annoyed by it!"
Students of the game
Remarkably, Antonelli is dovetailing his rookie F1 season alongside his final year of school in Italy. "My mum is pushing," he said, a reference to her insistence that he finish off his studies this year. Antonelli is studying at the Salvemini di Casalecchio di Reno Technical Institute in Bologna.
When asked if he brings homework to the track with him, Antonelli laughed again. "I try to bring some. For example, math ... I lend all my homework to the engineers, because they're good with numbers".
Antonelli does himself a disservice on the numbers front. Another standout trait of the Italian is his photographic memory; last year his Prema F2 team posted a video to social media of him recalling random qualifying lap times (down to the correct thousandth of a second) from different points of his career. Speaking about the Suzuka qualifying session the week earlier, he recalled it perfectly. "I'm pretty [fanatical] with this." As if to prove the point further, he then interrupted Bearman when the Englishman mentioned his own qualifying effort from Japan, the week before this interview took place.
"I know Suzuka was one minute ... wait ... 29.7?" Bearman stuttered, trying to recall his final lap time.
"No, mate!" Antonelli replied. "You did a 1:27.8."
"Really?" Bearman laughed. "Quicker than I thought. See? From last week, I forgot the lap time. From karting, he can remember the lap time."
Antonelli shrugged at the mention of his incredible recall ability. "I don't know. It's like ... I think because I'm pretty [fanatical] with lap times. It's like they get stuck into my head."
When it was then put to him that he did not need to give his engineers his homework, Antonelli chuckled again. "OK, now we swap. I'll put Bono in the car and I'll do the engineering. I think it wouldn't end up well. I think I'd do something terrible with the setup."
As their friendship has blossomed in recent years, Antonelli has taken on the role of tutor, helping Ferrari junior Bearman with his Italian. There's one phrase in particular that Antonelli has enjoyed teaching his English friend.
"'Sei alla frutta,'" Antonelli said. "It's nothing bad. It means you're finished, basically, completely gone, it's like you're completely drunk and you say, 'Sei alla frutta' because you can't speak, you can't think, whatever."
As the interview drew to a close, the pair joked about how Antonelli's famous phrase might continue in his F1 career, referencing predecessor Hamilton's famous habit at Mercedes for saying: "Bono, my tires are gone."
"Mine could be ... my tires alla frutta," Antonelli laughed in reply.
"That can be the new catchphrase," Bearman said, before referencing Bonnington's famous phrase from Hamilton's championship-winning days at Mercedes. "I need to hear a version of Hammer Time."
Bearman's suggestion, based on the three-letter driver names that appear on timing screens, was admittedly less catchy, but made both laugh again as the interview ended. "It's ANT time!"
Five races into their first full F1 seasons, it might not be Antonelli Time or Bearman Time just yet, but judging by how quickly they've adapted to life alongside the grown adults on the grid, it might not be long before it is.
