Mercedes have praised Kimi Antonelli for the progress he has made throughout his rookie F1 season to date, believing {the teenager} is now “discovering his toes extra rapidly” at race weekends after approaching early rounds “with a level of warning”.
Antonelli climbed from F4 to F1 in simply over three years along with his 2025 promotion to a race seat on the Silver Arrows, the place he has been competing alongside skilled, a number of Grand Prix-winner George Russell.
Whereas the 18-year-old Italian made an prompt impression by way of an excellent cost from sixteenth to fourth on the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, he discovered himself battling to rise up to hurry at a number of occasions that adopted.
Then, dotted round a spell of incidents and retirements, got here two breakthrough outcomes – Antonelli storming to a maiden pole place throughout Dash Qualifying in Miami and scoring his first F1 podium in Canada.
Following that podium end, Antonelli admitted that he had probably “overreacted” to his dramatic Free Observe debut crash eventually 12 months’s Italian Grand Prix and was “a bit too protected” in his strategy transferring ahead.
Assessing Antonelli’s begin to life in F1 shortly earlier than the summer season break, Mercedes Technical Director James Allison shared that idea, whereas highlighting how the group have been attempting to assist construct his total confidence.
“We speak about this a bit internally, and it could simply be extra gossip than actuality, however the journey into the barrier at Monza, I feel that will have simply left him approaching the weekends with a level of warning in consequence,” Allison advised choose media, together with F1.com.
“We’ve been encouraging him to kind of belief [his] expertise: ‘You’ll be able to lean into that greater than you assume you’ll be able to’. As he will get the arrogance to try this, he’s discovering his toes extra rapidly through the weekend.”
Because it stands, Antonelli sits seventh in the Drivers’ Championship on 64 factors, whereas the aforementioned Russell holds fourth on 172 – the Briton having scored a race win and 5 additional podiums this 12 months.
Given Russell’s pace and data, with the 27-year-old making his F1 debut again in 2019 and being a long-time member of the Mercedes household, Allison described the scenario as “an excellent apprenticeship” for Antonelli.
“George has barely put a foot fallacious,” Allison stated of Russell’s season. “He’s been on the cash in Qualifying. The place we’ve given him a automotive that he’s capable of work with, he’s completed all the pieces we might have hoped [for] with it, so bravo to him.
“That’s clearly giving Kimi a really excessive commonplace to shoot for. I’m happy with the truth that Kimi, usually talking this 12 months, has been capable of get near George because the weekend’s gone on. Because the 12 months’s gone on, maybe you possibly can say he will get within the groove a bit swifter.
“However George is setting a really, very excessive bar. It’s an excellent apprenticeship for Kimi to have somebody as swift as George to shoot for.”
Antonelli’s quest for progress has additionally been boosted by Mercedes reverting to an older specification of suspension following their failed mid-season change – the teenager returning to the factors in Hungary and declaring that he was “getting the arrogance again”.
