Kimi Antonelli, now 19 and dominating this year's Formula 1 championship in only his second season, credits his early immersion in motorsport for his rapid rise. His father Marco, a former racing driver, describes his son as having been "born in a garage" and recalls first suspecting his exceptional talent when Kimi, aged 10, controlled a Lamborghini's steering and gears from his lap at the Adria circuit in Italy.

Antonelli was introduced to a motor racing simulator at around age three and began karting at five, quickly showing an instinctive grasp of racing lines and braking points. Marco, who narrowly missed out on works drives with Alfa Romeo and BMW in the 1990s DTM series, initially felt anxious about his son following the same path, but ultimately funded Kimi through karting and a season of Formula 4 as a "normal family" without the resources to bankroll every rung of the junior ladder.