Kimi Antonelli is still just 18 years old, and could still be in school. Instead, he’s mixing it with the big names of Grand Prix racing – and already impressing with his speed and composure on track. But just how good has he been since making the step up to Formula 1? Given his tender years, we asked IndyCar star and F1 TV pundit James Hinchcliffe to assess his progress with a quarterly report card on his first season in motor racing’s top tier.
After six races and two Sprints, Antonelli finds himself sitting sixth in the Drivers’ World Championship, a mere five points off Ferrari front man Charles Leclerc and seven points ahead of Lewis Hamilton, the man he replaced at Mercedes.
Let’s remember that Antonelli has two fewer Grand Prix starts then Leclerc has F1 wins, and one fewer than Hamilton has championship titles! On the face of it, it’s been a very impressive start from the young Italian – but let’s drill down into the nitty gritty…
Taking into account all the Grand Prix and Sprint Qualifying sessions to date, Antonelli has performed admirably for a rookie. To be fair, when you consider that his team mate George Russell is in the form of his life right now, he has performed admirably for anyone, rookie or not.
Russell dominated Hamilton 24-6 in combined Qualifying last year, and Antonelli already has two notches on the belt courtesy of his unbelievable Miami weekend when he took pole for the Sprint and then P3 for the Grand Prix.
What has impressed me about Antonelli the most is more often than not his lap times improve with each segment. That progression is key for any driver to be a success on Saturdays and he is already showing he can continue to push the limit of the car with each successive Qualifying segment.
For me, he was sitting at a B+ until the Miami weekend where he brought his average qualifying deficit to Russell down from around 0.4 to roughly 0.25, with a Sprint pole to boot!
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This area of his game is more inline with what you’d expect from a rookie – especially considering Russell is performing at an exceptional level at present.
While he has shown a decent ability to manage his tyres – a skill set that is absolutely crucial in this generation of Formula 1 – his ability to maintain front running pace simultaneously is somewhat lacking.
Far from a cause for concern, this is simply an area where experience plays a big part. Look at the jump Oscar Piastri took in this department from year one to year two, and then again in year three.
Antonelli has finished some races only seconds behind Russell (with Japan being particularly impressive given his lack of experience at the track) but having yet to cross the line ahead of his team mate at the flag keeps the grade a bit lower. For now.
Antonelli has been getting closer to Russell
If I had been giving this grade after the Australian GP, it would have been an A+! Some of the moves we saw Antonelli make in mixed conditions were truly breathtaking and showed his maturity in wheel-to-wheel battles.
We haven’t seen any messy moments where he has been at fault for needless contact, and his spacial awareness of his car and those around him is excellent. We have seen a few times the pressure of a rival in close pursuit has led to small errors, allowing a position to be lost, but even those are few and far between.
He is still learning about going wheel-to-wheel with each of his competitors and how to race them given their on-track personalities. This, too, will come with time. His offence seems very dialled-in, with only his defence needing a bit of development.
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By far what has impressed me the most about Antonelli is how he has handled the pressure that has come with his new position in the sport.
Stepping into a championship-calibre team, with a team mate operating in peak form – and into the seat of one of the greatest to ever do it – comes with an unimaginable amount of pressure.
I remember the step up to IndyCar from Indy Lights being incredibly daunting. As a driver, you become acutely aware that now, unlike before, every lap of every session is under global scrutiny.
You’re trying to learn and better yourself as a driver, but any misstep is now on display to the world. It is a massive adjustment and not an easy one. And that isn’t even taking into account the exponential increase in off-track commitments.
Kimi Antonelli already has his first Sprint Pole under his belt
I had the benefit of coming into the series with a smaller team and lower expectations. For Antonelli, that is certainly not the case. He was being touted as the next Verstappen and was replacing Hamilton. Expectations couldn’t have been higher. Lesser drivers would have crumbled.
But Antonelli has taken it all in stride, not letting either the good days or bad affect him and his approach in a meaningful way, while maintaining his youthful exuberance and eagerness to improve. He is clearly a hard worker too, and is not letting the thought of being Toto Wolff’s cure to missing out on signing Max Verstappen all those years ago distract him from doing what he does best.
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This is a short list for a driver with a half dozen races under his belt. The Qualifying deficit to Russell needs to continue to come down, and he is showing every sign that that trend will continue.
More than that, the race management is something that clearly needs improving, from both a pure pace and from a consistency standpoint. The reality is that this comes with experience. It is an impossible thing to practise away from the track, so he simply needs more races to continue his impressive development.
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It is not lost on me that this might sound almost unfairly harsh for such an inexperienced driver, but such is the type of assessment that comes when the level at which he has performed so far has been so high.
Based on what we’ve seen out of him over such a short period of time in F1, it’s not hard to imagine Antonelli graduating into a World Champion in the not-too-distant future.
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