Antonelli, Doohan and Colapinto Clash Over Iconic F1 Number 12
Nov.27 - Three drivers have been locked in a tussle over the number 12.
Kimi Antonelli and Jack Doohan are preparing for their full-time Formula 1 race debuts in 2025 for the Mercedes and Alpine teams respectively - and both signalled their desire to race with the permanent number 12.
Sport1 reports that there were "heated discussions" about who should be allocated the number, which was made famous on Ayrton Senna's McLaren en route to his first world championship title in 1988.
Antonelli, 18, was wearing the number 12 on his Mercedes when he made his official practice debut at Monza - and crashed. "It is the number of one of my idols," the Italian confirmed.
"I have many numbers that I like, but 12 is a special one," he added. "I have been using it since F4 and it always went well, so there's no reason to change it for next year."
But around the same time, Doohan was also laying claim to number 12. Instead, he will revive Kimi Raikkonen's old number 7 from 2025 and beyond.
"I really wanted to go with a number that I raced with before, something that had meaning for me," said the Australian.
"I raced with number 7 in 2019 and also one of my idols, a super special person and driver Kimi Raikkonen, drove that number. I'm really looking forward to continuing it on and making it my own - and getting some luck from number 7."
Franco Colapinto also expressed a desire to race with the number 12, but not because of Senna. Instead, fans of the Argentinean football team Boca Juniors are known as 'La 12'.
"43 is also a number that I am very attached to, I have used it often in my career," said the Williams rookie.
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Antonelli was simply the quickest in making his choice, with Doohan waiting until only recently instead of making his choice shortly after the Dutch GP when he got formally confirmed, as drivers normally do so shortly afterwards rather than wait for the sake of waiting, so literally nothing happened & certainly no heated discussions.
Doohan certainly wasn't laying claim on that number around the same time because otherwise, he would've indeed set his choice with FIA between the Dutch & Italian GPs when Antonelli wasn't formally confirmed yet, so simply a timing thing.
Colapinto was never in contention as he's never been formally confirmed for a 2025 drive & is unlikely to get one anymore, given how late everything happened for him.
He's been using 43 only because that's Williams' FIA-allocated reserve number for this season & he's only been guaranteed until the season's end, hence he didn't get to choose.
For that matter, Bearman used 38 in Jeddah, & 50 in both Baku & Interlagos since they're the respective reserve numbers for Ferrari & Haas, while 87 will be his regular race number from next season onwards.
Lawson has also only been using team-specific reserve numbers so far, 40 for last season's substitutions & 30 since the US GP as he's still yet to be confirmed as a full-time driver for next season.
It's all a believe, your number won't matter as much as your talent and efforts.
I can't recall Senna ever talking about his number, can you?
Indeed. Race number is just a number in the end & has zero impact on what truly matters, so they should care less, like Senna & other distant past greats.
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.