Move over Franz Hermann: Mercedes rookie Antonelli sneaks into Daytona as ‘Henry Shovlin’ and smashes the stopwatch
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is making a habit of keeping people honest. On the first Saturday of F1’s winter break, the Mercedes teenager quietly turned up at Daytona Milton Keynes, signed in under the name “Henry Shovlin,” pulled his cap down, and went to work in the rain.
By the time helmets came off, the grid had twigged. The quietly spoken kid in the corner was Lewis Hamilton’s successor at Brackley — and he’d just blitzed the field.
Track operators said Antonelli’s best lap, a 1:24.5 in wet conditions, was the fastest of the race by three seconds and, for good measure, more than five seconds quicker than the time posted by Alex Albon on a previous visit. It’s rental karting — conditions vary, equipment varies — but that’s still an eyebrow-raiser.
The alias wasn’t random either. “Henry Shovlin” is a cheeky nod to Mercedes’ long-serving trackside engineering director Andrew “Shov” Shovlin, the straight-talking voice that’s been on the other end of endless radio calls for Hamilton, and now Antonelli, at the factory outfit. It’s very F1 to go undercover with a wink to the team’s inner circle.
If the tactic sounds familiar, it’s because Max Verstappen — a four-time world champion — did his own stealthy spin earlier this year, rolling out at the Nürburgring for GT laps under the pseudonym “Franz Hermann.” Same sport, same instincts: when racing is your job, sneaking off to race for fun is practically a reflex.
Daytona Milton Keynes, a stone’s throw from Red Bull’s HQ, has a leaderboard littered with big names. Antonelli posed beside it after his wet-weather masterclass, among entries for Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar, with Sergio Perez — set for Cadillac in 2026 — also listed from a previous run. The venue has seen all sorts drop by: Christian Horner, Tom Cruise, Sir Alastair Cook. On Saturday, it was a 19-year-old in a low cap, sending it.
It fits the theme of his first year in Formula 1. Antonelli arrived in 2025 with the weight of a famous seat on his shoulders, taking over from Hamilton at Mercedes and facing George Russell across the garage. He didn’t exactly tiptoe into it. He took his first pole within six rounds — topping qualifying for the Miami sprint — then banked a maiden podium in Canada. A scruffy middle stretch followed, the kind that exposes a rookie and teaches him just as much as any champagne Sunday. He came back sharper.
The closing charge told you more about where his ceiling might be. Antonelli took a career-best second in Brazil, then produced a thumping recovery in Las Vegas, climbing from 17th on the grid to the podium. He finished his rookie campaign seventh in the standings, well adrift of Russell on points by season’s end — 169 down — but with the kind of touch-and-go moments that make engineers lean in during debriefs.
That’s why a rainy afternoon in Milton Keynes matters. The stopwatch at Daytona won’t move a single line on the 2026 car’s CAD model, but it does underline what’s already obvious: Antonelli’s car control is his calling card, and he doesn’t need a grandstand to prove it. It’s the way he rolls through a slippery apex, the way he trusts the front, the way he resets after a wobble. All that translates, whether it’s an SF-23, a W16, or a SODI D40 rental.
There’s also an energy to these undercover cameos that Formula 1 could use more of. The sport loves its pristine hospitality and billion-dollar footprints; it also lives in places like Daytona MK on a wet Saturday, where a kid can jump in a kart and go three seconds faster than everybody else just because it’s fun. Verstappen gets that. Antonelli clearly does too.
Mercedes won’t be hanging bunting for a kart time, and no one in Brackley’s wind tunnel is updating their CFD runs because “Henry Shovlin” was quick in Buckinghamshire. But inside a team that’s recalibrating post-Hamilton and still searching for consistent bite across a long season, it’s a nice winter postcard: their rookie is restless, sharp, and still hunting laps when the calendar says holidays.
File it under harmless mischief with competitive side effects. And maybe don’t be surprised if the next time Antonelli turns up unannounced, the guy at sign-on asks, “Mr Shovlin, is it?” before giving him a knowing smile and a wristband.
