Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli proved he’s worth the hype with an impressive display in mixed conditions at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
Five rookies headed down under, but none with as much expectation as Antonelli and boy, did he deliver.
Antonelli arrives in F1 as an 18-year-old, hailed as the new generation for Mercedes to fill the gaping void left by Lewis Hamilton.
The feeling within the Mercedes camp is that Antonelli could be a Verstappen-level talent, and fast-tracking him to F1 was crucial given the German marque missed out on the Flying Dutchman a decade ago.
Before he was even announced as a Mercedes F1 driver shortly after his 18th birthday during last year’s Italian Grand Prix, Antonelli underwent an extensive TPC (Testing of Previous Car) programme.
This testing regime continued and he made a further FP1 appearance at Mexico City in 2024.
In total, before arriving at pre-season testing last month, Toto Wolff reasoned that Antonelli had already racked up approximately 9,000 kilometres in Mercedes F1 machinery.
But how would all of this translate into true F1 pace?
Antonelli suffered a qualifying setback in Australia
The first real indication of Antonelli’s true potential would be qualifying, where he was sadly resigned to a shock Q1 exit.
However, this was no fault of the Italian with his 16th-place spot on the grid due to a damaged front bib.
Well, partly, as his ragged on-the-limit approach over several kerbs likely triggered the damage.
“It was a bit unfortunate,” he said. “On the medium [tyres], obviously, it needed another lap to come in, but then we switched to softs, and I think after T6 the car was quite damaged.
“Tomorrow it’s going to rain, so anything can happen. We’ll try to build something good from there.”
There was promise then, at that point, of something special from Antonelli on Sunday as he had already shown he is fearless in the wet, having overtaken Franco Colapinto off-line at Eau Rouge in the wet during last year’s Belgian F2 Sprint race.
A race day charge
Come race day at Albert Park, and with fellow rookies falling by the wayside, Antonelli shone brightly.
A Turn 3 spin did little to halt Antonelli’s charge from 16th through to fourth, which was signed off by a brilliant outside of Turn 9 move on Williams’ Alex Albon.
Antonelli arrived on the F1 scene in a big way, displaying the adept talent to muscle an F1 car in the wet with the skills of a seasoned veteran.
Antonelli’s speed was matched with tenacity, bravery and skill.
“I think today we got all the possible worst conditions for a first race,” Antonelli told select media including Motorsport Week post-race.
“I mean, we got wet, slicks on damp, slicks on wet, and then back to wet.
“So, definitely a really, really eventful race. But I’m really happy how it was managed from my side and from the team.
“Of course, I did a couple of mistakes, especially the spin. But, you know, the conditions were super, super tricky. Also, those white lines were a killer. But, yeah, really happy.
“The team really helped me throughout the whole race and made all the right calls and I definitely cannot complain about today.”
Antonelli revealed that Sunday in Melbourne was his second time driving an F1 car in the wet, following his first TPC run last year in Austria.
A fast learner, Antonelli used his opening stint to learn about the Intermediate tyre before being confident in the closing stint of the race, which his move and Albon proved.
“It was my second ever time on the wet with an F1,” he said.
“My first time was in Austria, my first ever test.
“The first stint, I struggled a little bit because with the Inters, I was trying to learn the tyre and to see how it was working, the grip and everything and then when I put on the second set I had a lot more confidence.”
Antonelli’s Australia result on ‘merit’ – Wolff
Wolff said the performance was on “merit” and showed the world the potential Mercedes already knew about.
“We always knew the potential, we’ve seen it, we’ve followed him since he was a kid. Performs under pressure, and yesterday in qualifying that wasn’t his doing. He would have qualified much further ahead. And today you saw that, he was able to just, you know, properly reel everybody in, slowly but surely, without making any mistakes. He had a little spin, but otherwise P4 is the result that he merits.”
An F1 debut under the toughest conditions and Antonelli shone like the sport’s newest star should.
He’s worthy of the hype.
READ MORE – George Russell not ‘naive’ to the threat Kimi Antonelli could pose at Mercedes
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