READ MORE: Wolff singles out praise for Antonelli as he explains where Mercedes are struggling compared to McLaren
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…
Qualifying: A-
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!
