Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s impressive pace and potential have earned him high praise from Mercedes F1 engineers, showcasing his promise as a future star.
James Allison asserts that Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s potential looks very promising after showing a “metronomic” pace for Mercedes during his Formula 1 tests so far.
Antonelli is in his first season in Formula 2 but has been identified as a potential future F1 driver for Mercedes or Williams. He has tested 2021 and 2022 F1 cars for the German team in recent weeks.
The team’s technical director, interviewed in Imola, stated that he is not involved in decisions regarding drivers for next year—when a replacement for Lewis Hamilton will be needed—but feedback from those conducting the tests has been positive.
“I had the great pleasure of listening to other engineers describe their interaction with him. He’s just a young and enthusiastic driver, very, very fast. Metronomic in his pace, he had never driven an F1 before but gave the impression he had been doing it for ages within a lap or two. Astonishing.”
“He learned well on the 2021 F1 car and approached this generation of cars, the ground-effect F1s, with an open mind… He feels the things we expect him to feel, but he’s not influenced by the behavior of previous F1 cars, so he takes them as they are and tells us what he feels, their weaknesses and strengths, and lets the engineers work on improving these things.”
“He seems to be a very promising young driver.”
There is much speculation about George Russell’s teammate next year. Would he prefer youth over experience?
“Well, fortunately, I’m not the one making that choice. So I’ll leave it to the team principal to answer that question!”
Antonelli Impresses Mercedes F1 Engineers. Antonelli Impresses Mercedes F1 Engineers
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