Championship leader Antonelli ignores orders on Goodwood Festival of Speed debut

Kimi Antonelli capped a packed week with his Goodwood Festival of Speed debut on Saturday, driving the Mercedes-AMG PureSpeed up the famous hillclimb before promising to return in 2027 for a fuller experience. The appearance came days after the British Grand Prix, a visit to Wimbledon, and tyre testing at Silverstone.

Speaking on the Pirelli fan zone stage, the Italian — who currently leads the Formula 1 drivers’ championship — made no secret of how he approached his first run. “They told me to go slow, but of course I didn’t listen,” Antonelli joked. “I just tried to push, but it was good.”

He was equally enthusiastic about the event itself. “It’s my first time, and I’ve got to go back home tonight unfortunately, but definitely I’m coming back next year, and hopefully I will be able to enjoy the weekend more, the experience more because it’s just so cool. So many cool race cars, and it’s the heart of motorsport.”

Antonelli’s hillclimb run came in the Mercedes-AMG PureSpeed, the inaugural model in the marque’s ultra-exclusive Mythos series. The open-top two-seater replaces a conventional roof and windscreen with a motorsport-inspired halo structure and is powered by a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 producing 800Nm of torque. It reaches 100km/h in 3.6 seconds and tops out at 315km/h. Only 250 units have been produced.

Antonelli was one of several current F1 drivers present at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly, Isack Hadjar, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson, and Franco Colapinto were also among those in attendance, alongside former world champion Damon Hill and Williams team principal James Vowles.