“It was Hockenheim in 2014,” said Antonelli in an interview for the official Mercedes team website, with his father, Marco, racing in the Porsche Supercup series that weekend. “I couldn’t get into the paddock because I was too little.
“My dad decided to hide me inside a stack of tyres and wheel me through on a trolley. We put an umbrella on top to make me harder to see!
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“I got through and into the pit lane, and my dad’s friend got me a pass. I had a look around for an hour and it was such a cool experience – but we always laugh at the story of the trolley.”
As touched on, Antonelli has since visited a host of racetracks around Europe and beyond, and there are a few that stand out for the young Italian so far.