Mercedes staff principal Toto Wolff says his staff understands the stress it’s placing its 2025 rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli beneath.
The staff confirmed final weekend in Monza that their 18-year-old junior driver can be promoted into Lewis Hamilton’s race seat for 2025 when the seven-times world champion strikes to Ferrari on the finish of the present season.
Antonelli made his first look in a grand prix follow session eventually week’s Italian Grand Prix, driving George Russell’s automotive. Nevertheless, Antonelli misplaced management of his automotive on the remaining nook, Alboreto, on the finish of his second push lap and crashed closely.
Regardless of Antonelli’s accident so quickly into his first outing in an official F1 session, Wolff insisted that his staff is conscious of the stress they had been asking their younger future driver to deal with.
“On the finish, it’s the staff that takes the selections whether or not to rent a driver or not and who to place in FP1 and never,” Wolff stated.
“We’re working absolutely acutely aware into these driver choices, absolutely acutely aware of what can occur, what to anticipate and managing the expectations. Clearly with the whole lot piling up on him in Monza, that’s very troublesome to deal with. Is that the explanation why he put it within the wall? Possibly. I take a look at driving efficiency. Like I stated earlier than, I’d moderately sluggish any individual down than make him quick, as a result of the second is inconceivable.”
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Antonelli has been promoted into System 1 after 20 races in his first System 2 marketing campaign with Prema having jumped from System Regional degree previous System 3 and immediately into F2. Regardless of his relative lack of expertise in comparison with many rookies who’ve joined the F1 grid lately, Wolff is adamant that Mercedes have seen sufficient from their junior driver to provide them confidence he’ll carry out subsequent season.
“In our trade, we completely perceive who’s succesful and never,” he stated.
“I feel the way it’s all panned out right here, he’s jumped F3, he’s just about gained the whole lot beforehand then it’s clear you begin to turn into a Mercedes driver, you take a look at in FP1, and on the similar time you’re beneath the magnifying glass as a result of all of it occurs in Monza. And it has been some time that an Italian driver was in a high staff. So I’m certain that this generally is a lot for an 18-year-old.
“However as I stated earlier than, he must swim. And nowadays which are so troublesome, like it’s for him for the time being, it feels actually horrible. And that’s a part of the event curve. And I don’t wish to be the one who picks out nice moments and says, ‘nicely, did you see that sector? Did you see that lap time?’ Or that we may have been third or first or no matter. However what we see is there’s efficiency. And we’ve even seen that within the few laps that we’ve seen, however what he tried to do, the automotive can’t take.”
Apart from his Monza outing, Antonelli has additionally pushed Mercedes F1 automobiles a number of instances this 12 months beneath the ‘testing with earlier automobiles’ programme allowed beneath the laws. Wolff says Antonelli’s checks have revealed his strengths as a driver in addition to areas for improvement.
“Actually his uncooked pace that’s there,” Wolff stated. “He’s capable of sit within the automotive after which put in fast laps.
“The tyre administration is a piece in progress and is a studying curve. So that’s going forward. So it’s precisely how the goals which have been set for a 17-year-old to develop and to lastly be prepared at some point to make it right into a race automotive.”
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