Andrea Kimi Antonelli has withdrawn from this week’s Super Formula winter test at Suzuka Circuit due to illness. Antonelli, who will race full-time for Mercedes in Formula 1 next season, also withdrew from last weekend’s Formula 2 season finale at Abu Dhabi due to illness, finishing the year sixth in the final championship standings.
Though he was able to run 62 laps in today’s Abu Dhabi F1 test, Antonelli will not make the trip to Japan, where on Friday he was due to run his first laps around Suzuka in the No.14 Rookie Racing Dallara SF23/Toyota.
The 18-year-old Mercedes prodigy was to have shared the track with a cast of drivers sampling the car and the circuit for the first time, including Haas F1 newcomer and fellow F2 graduate Oliver Bearman. Bearman will drive the No.7 KCMG Dallara/Toyota on Friday – the third and final day of the Suzuka test which is reserved exclusively for rookie drivers (defined by Super Formula as any driver with three or fewer starts in the series).
The first day of testing, featuring the regular Super Formula drivers, will take place Wednesday-and both sessions can be seen live on the SFgo streaming service starting Tuesday night at 8:00 PM EST for viewers in the United States.
