Mercedes suspect Kimi Antonelli’s debut Monza crash led to ‘degree of caution’ at start of rookie season

Mercedes have praised Kimi Antonelli for the progress he has made during his rookie F1 season so far, believing the teenager is now “finding his feet more quickly” at race weekends after approaching early rounds “with a degree of caution”.

Antonelli climbed from F4 to F1 in just over three years with his 2025 promotion to a race seat at the Silver Arrows, where he has been competing alongside experienced, multiple Grand Prix-winner George Russell.

While the 18-year-old Italian made an instant impression via a brilliant charge from 16th to fourth at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, he found himself battling to get up to speed at several events that followed.

Then, dotted around a spell of incidents and retirements, came two breakthrough results – Antonelli storming to a maiden pole position during Sprint Qualifying in Miami and scoring his first F1 podium in Canada.

Following that podium finish, Antonelli admitted that he had potentially “overreacted” to his dramatic Free Practice debut crash at last year’s Italian Grand Prix and was “a bit too safe” in his approach moving forward.

Assessing Antonelli’s start to life in F1 shortly before the summer break, Mercedes Technical Director James Allison shared that theory, while highlighting how the team have been trying to help build his overall confidence.

“We talk about this a bit internally, and it may just be more gossip than reality, but the trip into the barrier at Monza, I think that may have just left him approaching the weekends with a degree of caution as a result,” Allison told select media, including F1.com.

“We’ve been encouraging him to sort of trust [his] talent: ‘You can lean into that more than you think you can’. As he gets the confidence to do that, he’s finding his feet more quickly during the weekend.”

As it stands, Antonelli sits seventh in the Drivers’ Championship on 64 points, while the aforementioned Russell holds fourth on 172 – the Briton having scored a race win and five further podiums this year.

Given Russell’s speed and knowledge, with the 27-year-old making his F1 debut back in 2019 and being a long-time member of the Mercedes family, Allison described the situation as “a brilliant apprenticeship” for Antonelli.

“George has barely put a foot wrong,” Allison said of Russell’s season. “He’s been on the money in Qualifying. Where we’ve given him a car that he’s able to work with, he’s done everything we could have hoped [for] with it, so bravo to him.

“That’s obviously giving Kimi a very high standard to shoot for. I’m pleased with the fact that Kimi, generally speaking this year, has been able to get close to George as the weekend’s gone on. As the year’s gone on, perhaps you could say he gets in the groove a bit swifter.

“But George is setting a very, very high bar. It’s a brilliant apprenticeship for Kimi to have someone as swift as George to shoot for.”

Antonelli’s quest for progress has also been boosted by Mercedes reverting to an older specification of suspension following their failed mid-season switch – the youngster returning to the points in Hungary and declaring that he was “getting the confidence back”.