Why a Formula One prodigy killed his own father: Spanish driver dubbed the next Fernando Alonso blames stabbing on a ‘psychotic episode’ – but his parents’ messy divorce could be the real reason behind the tragedy
He broke a course record the first time he got into a go-kart aged eight and made history at 13 by becoming the youngest pilot to race an F3 car.
Two years later he was being dubbed Spain’s next Fernando Alonso as he counted down the days to Formula 1 wealth and glamour.
But instead of the multi-million pound mansion he might have been sleeping in tonight if his future had gone as planned, Antolin Gonzalez is now bedding down in a tiny Spanish prison cell.
And the 23-year-old has spectacularly derailed any prospect of an early release by admitting to killing the businessman dad who first got him on a race track by stabbing him in the neck and chest at the family warehouse.
Antolin will be nearing 30 if he can manage to persuade public prosecutors he suffered a psychotic episode after seeing his 56-year-old father grab a machete he claims he was going to attack him with during a row.
In a worst-case scenario, if his attempts to secure a plea bargain deal and a reduced prison sentence in return for his pre-trial confession fail, the motorsport record breaker will be a couple of years shy of 40 when he leaves jail.
Spanish racing prodigy Antolin Gonzalez, 23, has admitted to stabbing his father to death
The 23-year-old former F3 driver confessed to killing his father during a violent confrontation at the family’s industrial warehouse in Aranda de Duero, near Burgos, on July 5
Once dubbed Spain’s next Fernando Alonso, he was counting down the days to an F1 career
Either way his dreams of following in the footsteps of the likes of Lewis Hamilton and two-time F1 world champion Alonso are over.
The astonishing turnaround in the life story of the racing driver once regarded as one of Spain’s most promising talents has sent shockwaves through the world of sport.
Antolin’s home city of Aranda de Duero a two-hour drive north of Madrid is most famous for its wines and his well-off family were well-known among its 33,000-strong population only because of their wholesale dried fruits and pickles business.
The youngster began to change all that with his early demonstration of his prowess behind the wheel at speeds of over 75mph.
His mum, whose ugly divorce from her only son’s dad has been linked to the horror July 5 killing that has left his racing career in tatters, has revealed they let Antolin do a few laps of their local go-kart circuit in a ‘spur-of-the-moment’ decision as they returned from a Christmas shopping trip.
The pint-sized youngster ended up breaking the lap record and spurring the circuit owner to persuade his parents he had a gift that had to be exploited.
Raquel Carreras, whose surname translates into English as ‘Races’, told a local TV station when Antolin was just 10: ‘We started in this by chance. As a result of him doing a lap record we’ve been competing for two years and he’s done things really well because he’s obviously got talent.’
By then Antolin had already trialled in the UK for Lewis Hamilton’s childhood team, with only an eleventh-hour change in regulations preventing youngsters his age competing outside of their homeland, frustrating a move to Britain.
Despite early comparisons to Alonso, it is claimed his progress stalled due to financial issues
The Spaniard rose to prominence as one of the country’s brightest young talents in motorsport
His local paper proclaimed: ‘A star has been born’ when he was 15 and piloting an F3 with auto racing team Drivex and ex F1 driver Pedro Martinez de la Rosa as his ‘godfather.’
It reported at the time: ‘The jump to F1 is near and his age – he has to be 18 – and money are the only obstacles right now.’
Antolin’s dreams of sharing a podium alongside the likes of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris began to hit the skids when sponsorship dried up despite him finishing runner-up in the 2018 Asian Formula Renault championship.
His middle-class family had spoken openly up until then about the financial toll supporting their son’s dreams of F1 stardom took on them, with his mum explaining early on in his career when he was already a champion go-karter: ‘Races are very expensive. We can’t pay for both training and races and so he only competes at the moment which is more important.
‘But even with that we’re getting the results because of his natural talent.’
But sources close to the former racing champ have hinted at the extra emotional baggage that came with watching his parents’ marriage disintegrate.
The tragedy of his departure from the sport he loved played itself out on his social media – his second-to-last post on his X account AntolinPilotoF3 being a February 2018 thank you to a Spanish journalist describing him in a comment article as the ‘future Fernando Alonso’ who already holds ‘several records that are difficult to beat.’
His dad already had two restraining orders out against him preventing him from going near Antolin’s mum when he was killed following a messy divorce local sources say he had never accepted.
Gonzalez confessed to stabbing his father in the neck and chest at the family warehouse
Antolin’s defence lawyer Jose Luis Vegas, echoing the sentiments of relatives who have previously appeared to point towards the breakdown of his parents’ relationship affecting his F1 dreams, said this week after confirming his client had confessed to killing his dad at a closed court hearing earlier this month: ‘His father was his greatest supporter throughout his sporting career.’
A plea bargain deal with prosecutors could see his prison sentence reduced to around five years when the case gets to trial following the culmination of a judicial investigation – up to ten less than he might get otherwise.
Madrid-based Mr Vegas told respected Spanish website El Espanol: ‘My defence will not go along the lines Antolin acted in self-defence.
‘My client doesn’t remember everything that happened in that warehouse. He suffered a psychotic episode when he saw his father with the machete.
‘He had been estranged from his dad for a year because of the divorce.
‘Antolin went to speak to his father because he was tired of him arguing with his mum and just wanted to fix things.
‘His father reacted by telling him to collect his things, a rucksack he had in the warehouse, and leave.
‘They began to row and the father ended up threatening Antolin with a machete he tried to attack him with.’
He once had dreams of standing on the F1 podium with the likes of Lando Norris (second right) and Max Verstappen (far right) – but now his hopes of a career in motorsport are in tatters
The weapon has never been recovered and police who have searched a river near the scene of the crime have privately given up on ever finding it.
Antolin’s mum, a former amateur handball player, is still supporting her son with a family spokesman admitting after her ex was killed they feared she and not the father could have been the stab victim because of ‘daily threats’ from the father.
Antolin ‘left everything to be near his mum’ when his racing career was about to take off, the spokesman told Spanish news website Articulo 14 after the racing prodigy’s arrest the day of his father’s death.
He added: ‘His ultimate aim was that his mum was alone and unprotected the least amount of time possible.’
