Kimi Antonelli is already worth €50 million. And within the ever-accelerating rise of this Formula 1 phenomenon, San Marino plays a part too. Not only because the Mercedes driver has long chosen the Titano as his home, but because part of the business built around his image passes through the Republic as well.
The numbers are laid out today by La Gazzetta dello Sport, which together with StageUp has estimated the twenty-year-old Bolognese driver’s potential economic value at €50 million. That figure, it should be made clear, doesn’t correspond to what Antonelli earns each year: rather, it represents the value the driver could command today when combining his results on track, his ability to draw crowds and sponsors, image rights, and a comparison with Formula 1’s biggest names.
And it’s precisely when digging into the numbers behind the Antonelli phenomenon that San Marino comes into the picture. Gazzetta reports that in 2025 the Titano-based company managing the driver’s image posted revenues of €3 million. In the same year, according to Forbes figures cited by the sports daily, Mercedes is said to have paid Antonelli a €4 million base salary plus another €6 million in bonuses.
The newspaper had already devoted an in-depth piece in recent days to the business built around the young champion, bringing together salary, brand and the San Marino-based company. Behind the races lies a whole structure that also handles image rights, partnerships, commercial relationships and opportunities linked to the driver’s now-global popularity.
The relationship with the Titano, however, goes well beyond a mere corporate registered address. Antonelli lives in San Marino and has spoken openly about it when discussing his daily life. Sky Sport, in an interview filmed in the Republic itself, showed him at home in San Marino.
Then there is the Antonelli family’s connection to San Marino motorsport. The San Marino Automobile Motorcycle Federation (Federazione Auto Motoristica Sammarinese), after his first Formula 1 victory in China, had noted that the driver was a resident of the Republic and that the family’s racing business, run by his father Marco Antonelli, was also based on the Titano.
Adding another layer to this bond, in September 2025 Antonelli was named by Italy as Ambassador of Italian Sport in the World for San Marino, as part of the sports diplomacy initiative promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. San Marino’s own Secretariat of State for Sport had at the time underlined how the honour strengthened the ties between the young driver and the Republic.
The numbers now show just how quickly the economic scale of the young star is changing. Antonelli is in his second Formula 1 season, leads the World Championship and has already won seven Grands Prix, including Monza. According to Gazzetta’s analysis, a potential world title could propel him into the economic bracket immediately below Formula 1’s two giants, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Giovanni Palazzi, president of StageUp, explains to Gazzetta that Formula 1 essentially has three levels of earnings: young drivers, established stars such as Leclerc, Norris and Piastri, and finally champions capable of retaining enormous commercial value beyond any single result. With the 2026 title, Antonelli could move right into that top bracket.
The point is that Kimi isn’t just fast on track. At twenty, he appeals to a young audience, has an image that translates easily onto the international stage, and carries with him the commercial weight of made in Italy. It’s this combination that leads StageUp and Gazzetta to their potential valuation of €50 million.
And while the driver’s value keeps climbing, San Marino remains very much part of this story, and far from marginally so: it is the place Antonelli has chosen to call home, it hosts part of his family’s motorsport activities, and above all it is home to the company that manages his image — a company that, back in 2025, when the Kimi phenomenon was only just taking off, had already reached €3 million in revenue.
