Mercedes encouraging Kimi Antonelli to “trust his talent” in rookie F1 season

Mercedes has revealed it has been pushing Kimi Antonelli to “trust his talent” as he continues to adapt to life in Formula 1.

The Italian has had to deal with the weight of expectations after stepping up to F1 at the age of 18 following a promising record in junior racing.

Antonelli himself has spoken about how he has been “too conservative” this season after “overcorrecting” in the wake of his FP1 crash at the Italian Grand Prix last year.

Mercedes is aware that Antonelli has been taking a “cautious” approach, but has tried to tackle the issue by advising him to believe in his abilities.

“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,” Mercedes technical director James Allison was quoted by F1’s official website.

“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.”

Despite the lack of aggression, Antonelli sits seventh in the championship during the summer break, with a best result of third at the Canadian Grand Prix.

His teammate George Russell has been one of the strongest performers of the season, with victory in the same Montreal race helping him cement fourth place in the championship, just behind McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Allison praised Russell, now a four-time grand prix winner, for setting a “very high bar” for Antonelli in the Mercedes garage.

“George has barely put a foot wrong,” Allison said. “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.”