Kimi Antonelli causes chaos in Mercedes garage just hours before United States GP

youngster found time for fun and games in the Silver Arrows' garage ahead of the .

The 18-year-old is certainly making himself at home in Mercedes colours ahead of his hotly-anticipated step up to a full-time seat next season. Toto Wolff selected Antonelli to fill the shoes of none other than Lewis Hamilton in 2025, as the seven-time world champion prepares to join Ferrari.

And the teenager is already brightening up the garage, with his good-natured antics caught on camera before Sunday's action at Circuit of the Americas.

Hilarious show Antonelli's fitness trainer, Sergi, covered in whipped cream after a separate snap showed the motorsports prodigy poised with a paper plate and ready to pounce. The messy prank was a form of birthday gift from Antonelli, with Sergi celebrating his big day in Austin.

Antonelli sits sixth in the F2 Drivers' Championship standings, having racked up 113 points across 12 race weekends. His final flourishes with PREMA Racing will come in Qatar and Abu Dhabi this December.

spotted the Italian's talent early, having recruited him to their junior driver programme six years ago. Antonelli was given his first test in an F1 car earlier this year at the Ring, and he was later handed a free practice session at the Italian Grand Prix, in which he crashed 10 minutes into the session.

But there are still high hopes and hot anticipation for the wonderkid's promotion to the Silver Arrows' F1 seat. Wolff made no secret about his admiration for triple world champion when he was scouring the market for candidates to replace Hamilton.

However, Wolff remains adamant he made the right decision by putting his faith in a young up-and-comer. And the boss claims it did not take him long to make the final call.

"I made up my mind five minutes after told me that he's going to ," he said. "Obviously we were discussing other options and looking at the Max idea - we didn't discount it completely with looking at what happened at .

"But instinctively that is the line-up with these two [Russell and Antonelli] that I always wanted, bearing in mind the fast-tracking that we did with Kimi and everything related there too, but that was immediately what I wanted to do."