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Antonelli 'The Seat' documentary to launch on Netflix
A new documentary showing the decision to promote Kimi Antonelli into a race seat at Mercedes will air on Netflix following this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
Titled ‘The Seat’, the 45-minute documentary premiers on May 5 and will feature the private conversations that took place as the team weighed up who to replace Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton with. Produced in partnership with the Mercedes sponsor WhatsApp, the documentary features calls and discussions between team principal Toto Wolff and Antonelli as the team prepares the young Italian talent to be announced as its 2025 driver choice.
“Selecting Kimi as our race driver for 2025 was, as 'The Seat' documents, a big decision,” Wolff said. “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.”
The team describes the decision to hand the rookie the opportunity “a once-in-a-generation driver change in Mercedes and F1 history”, with the trailer including commentary on how inexperienced Hamilton’s replacement was at the time of his promotion from Formula 2.
“It is a dream come true to be an F1 driver with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team,” 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.
“I can’t wait for the world to join us on this journey streaming the documentary on Netflix.”
While WhatsApp is prominently mentioned – this being the second original film project from the partnership, following one featuring Hamilton last year titled ‘Push, Push’ – ‘The Seat’ is the first to debut on Netflix.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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