MEXICO CITY – Ferrari fans can only imagine what might have been had hometown talent Kimi Antonelli signed for their team as a young go-karter rather than joining Mercedes.

Formula One's oldest and most successful team had the opportunity to secure a driver now set to become Italy's first champion in 73 years — and the youngest ever in the sport — but let the chance slip through their fingers. No Italian has won the drivers' title since Alberto Ascari in 1953, and the record for the youngest champion, set by Sebastian Vettel at 23 with Red Bull in 2010, is also on course to fall. Mercedes stepped in instead in 2018, when Antonelli was just 11 years old.

"For Ferrari, Kimi was still too young whereas Mercedes could offer better guarantees regarding his future prospects," Antonelli's former manager, Giovanni Minardi, told the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper earlier this year.

Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who was no longer involved with the team when the decision was made, saw a silver lining.

"I am a Ferrari man but I'm delighted to see what Antonelli is doing," he told Spanish newspaper AS last month. "What I do regret is that Ferrari had the chance to sign him. They didn't. A great opportunity vanished, but almost better for Antonelli. Such a young Italian driving a Ferrari… It would have been terrible pressure."

Mercedes team boss and co-owner Toto Wolff credited Gwen Lagrue — who is joining Red Bull next year to run their young driver programme — with bringing Antonelli, now 20, into the squad. He added that outsiders fail to appreciate the scale of work behind nurturing the team's successor to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, whose switch to Ferrari opened the seat Antonelli stepped into.

"I read an interview with Piero Ferrari last week where he said, 'What a talent. He reminds me of Niki Lauda'. And I'm thinking, 'People don't get that this is the work of nine years'," the Austrian told reporters after Antonelli won last Sunday's US Grand Prix in Austin, his ninth victory of the season.

Lauda won two of his three Formula One championships with Ferrari, in 1975 and 1977.

"The development of nine years, the hardship of nine years, the integration of the team, the working with the engineers, the 10 or more millions spent in the development of his career, of his ability, of his character together with his parents. It's just not that it landed like this."

Wolff also recalled how critics, after Antonelli went nine rounds without scoring a point last year — his first season in Formula One — argued he should not have been given the Mercedes seat. Some at rival teams went further, suggesting the youngster did not even belong in Formula One.

"All of that now is extremely satisfying, to see what he's able to deliver and how he's working with the team, with (race engineer Peter) Bono (Bonnington) and yielding the results," Wolff said. "But it wasn't an easy road." — Reuters