Kimi Antonelli lands in the hot ‘seat’ with new Netflix documentary

Rising F1 star Kimi Antonelli is to feature in a standalone documentary on Netflix charting his promotion to a race seat with Mercedes.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff faced a major dilemma last year when Lewis Hamilton announced he would be leaving the team that had helped him win six of his seven F1 titles to join bitter rivals Ferrari - all before a wheel had turned in anger on the campaign.

Mercedes was heavily linked with a move for Red Bull's Max Verstappen, before Wolff decided to place his faith in junior driver Antonelli.

A 45-minute documentary, entitled 'The Seat', covers the key moments that resulted in the 18-year-old Italian being chosen to step into the hot seat being vacated by Hamilton.

As an original film project from WhatsApp, 'The Seat' provides an inside look into the private calls and chats that took place over the private messaging service ahead of Antonelli's promotion.

“Selecting Kimi as our race driver for 2025 was, as 'The Seat' documents, a big decision," said Wolff.

"WhatsApp played an instrumental role in this. It was the engine that kept everything moving smoothly and privately, allowing our team to focus on Kimi's development, discuss progress, and ultimately communicate our choice.

"We’re excited to give F1 fans around the world a unique insight into the process, showing how we arrived at this pivotal moment in the team’s history."

Underlining that it has been "a dream come true to be an F1 driver", Antonelli said: "Throughout the process, Toto, the team, and I were in constant communication on WhatsApp, and the ‘The Seat’ shows this process from start to finish."

The documentary airs on May 5. You can catch a glimpse of the programme via the trailer below.