Photo: Mercedes-AMG F1
Reigning world karting champion Ethan Jeff-Hall has been added to the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior team for 2025.
The 16-year-old Briton [pictured top with Andrea Kimi Antonelli] will be moving into single-seaters this year, debuting in British Formula 4 with the Argenti Motorsport team that ran Mercedes-AMG F1 juniors in F4 and in karting last year.
Mercedes’ signing of an “over the moon” Jeff-Hall means he is no longer in contention to join the Ferrari Driver Academy. Last October he contested its scouting world final, and a winner is still yet to be announced.
That came a month after Jeff-Hall’s dramatic claiming of the CIK-FIA World championship for OK karts with a last-lap move on karting icon Joe Turney. The pair had made it through treacherously wet conditions at the PF International circuit with a clear advantage over everybody else, and Jeff-Hall was in second until Turney made a big mistake.
It was only Jeff-Hall’s second outing on OK karts, having focused on racing Rotax Senior machinery and also making his first steps in car racing by competing in entry-level sportscar series Ginetta Junior.
Jeff-Hall won European competitions on Rotax Junior karts in 2022, then in the senior class he won the Rotax Max Challenge International Trophy two years in a row. By starting on pole for the 2024 final, he also earned himself a spot in the FEED Racing France shootout but did not win the French F4 seat that was up for grabs there.
He was also third in the Rotax Max Challenge Winter Cup, and 16th in the Euro Trophy after missing the final round.
In Ginetta Junior, Jeff-Hall romped to the title with six victories, eight other podiums and seven poles.