No, Kimi Antonelli is not named after Kimi Raikkonen
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is the clear favourite to win the 2026 Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship. With nine races left in the season, the Italian leads the standings by 81 points over George Russell, his Mercedes teammate. Barring a major upset, no driver has ever managed to overturn such a deficit this deep into a season. Antonelli is therefore on course to become the first Italian driver to win the Formula 1 World Championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953. It would be a historic moment for Italy. For the whole of Italy.
Antonelli’s potential achievement would be one of those results that breaks through the boundaries of sports news to become a mass phenomenon. To put things into perspective, it is reasonable to expect media coverage similar to the kind Jannik Sinner receives whenever he wins a Grand Slam. Even those with no interest in motorsport, or sport in general, will get to know this 2006-born driver who made his Formula 1 debut at 18, replacing Lewis Hamilton, and who, while waiting to become world champion, has already secured his place in history by becoming the youngest driver ever to take pole position, as well as the youngest Italian driver to win a Grand Prix.
Just like Sinner, Antonelli has a name with a strong international ring to it. Kimi is short, immediate and easy to pronounce anywhere, while still retaining a certain Italian quality, thanks to its final vowel and its connection to Bologna, the city he comes from. A name that seems almost made to cross borders and that, inevitably, evokes Formula 1 history because of its similarity to Kimi Räikkönen, the last driver to win the World Championship with Ferrari. Except that’s not how the story goes.
Why is Kimi Antonelli called Kimi?
Let’s start with one simple fact. Kimi is not a nickname. It is Antonelli’s actual middle name, registered at birth. As the driver has explained in several interviews, when he was born, his parents were looking for a second name that was short and sounded good alongside Andrea Antonelli. The idea of Kimi was suggested by Enrico Bertaggia, a friend of Marco, Antonelli’s father. Where Bertaggia got the inspiration from, however, has never been established, leaving a small glimmer of hope for those who still want to believe that the connection between Antonelli and Räikkönen is more than a coincidence.
Kimi is a name that adds an international dimension and has, above all, given Antonelli an unusual nickname in both the Italian and international sporting landscape. At this early stage of his career, it seems to perfectly capture his youth, carefree attitude and competitive ferocity behind the wheel. It has also helped create an acronym from the initials of his two first names and surname, AKA, which is practically tailor-made for commercial activations.
Why sponsors are betting on his international name
When it comes to commercial activations, sponsors understood the potential of the name Kimi straight away. No one has ever seriously considered calling Antonelli Andrea or Andrea Kimi in an advert, reel or press release. In every activation, he is simply Kimi. The same goes for Mercedes, which we could consider his employer: every piece of communication involving him uses the name Kimi, never his full name. It is not a detail, but the clearest sign yet that Kimi has already become something bigger than a name. It is the character. And it is as Kimi Antonelli that he will enter the history of Italian and international sport.