Kimi Antonelli, just like Max Verstappen: Henry Shovlin becomes Franz Antonelli

Four-time Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen stated years ago: “In future, I’ll try to combine Formula 1 with appearances in other racing series. I want to explore more than just GP cars, and to that end I’ve already done several test drives; races will follow at some point.”

Verstappen set up his own racing team, and then came the sensation at the weekend between the Formula 1 races in Miami and Imola: Max Verstappen in a GT3 Ferrari on the Nürburgring Nordschleife! But hang on – that wasn’t Max Verstappen at all, but Franz Hermann. Pardon? Who is Franz Hermann?

The Dutchman smiled: “I was asked to come up with a pseudonym, and I thought I’d choose a name that couldn’t be any more German. That’s how I settled on Franz Hermann.”

But why the deception in the first place? “Because we didn’t want my name to appear on the participants’ list that morning. I realised there’d be quite a circus anyway, but at least at the start, around eight or nine in the morning, it stayed fairly quiet.”

About as quiet as it was in December 2025 at the Daytona Motorsport karting circuit in Milton Keynes (England). The track operators wrote the following on Instagram: “This afternoon, an unassuming young man named ‘Henry Shovlin’ turned up at the SODI D40 at Daytona Milton Keynes. Cap pulled low over his face. Low-key. Sat in the corner throughout the drivers’ briefing.”

Topic of the week

Topic of the week: Aprilia comeback? The truth is: Aprilia never went away!

Four weeks ago, Aprilia headed into the summer break from Germany with a badly injured Marco Bezzecchi. The response came from the heart of British motor racing: ‘Together we are strong!’

Thomas Kuttruf

Read more

TV program

Live

Zandvoort: 1. Freies Training

FIA Formula One World Championship

21.08.2026 - 12:15

“Lights out! After the race, the helmets came off in the pit lane, and the drivers slowly realised who they’d been racing against as Kimi Antonelli made his way back to the paddock.”

“Fastest lap of the race in the wet, with a three-second lead. Just a normal afternoon for us. It never gets boring here.”

Now Kimi’s done it again: at a hire-kart event in Germany, on the Formula Kart track in Nuremberg. A certain ‘Franz Antonelli’ was racing there.

The two-time European Karting Champion’s (2020 and 2021) class was soon evident: The drivers in positions 2 to 10 were all within eight-tenths of a second of each other, from Jonas Jakubek (27.013 sec) to Ian Jakubek (27.872). And Kimi’s fastest time? 25.400 sec …

Incidentally, Sergi Ávila, Kimi Antonelli’s personal trainer, finished sixth among the ten fastest drivers.