Kimi Antonelli “paying the price” for Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton comparisons

1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve believes Kimi Antonelli is “paying the price” for the hype surrounding him before joining Mercedes.

Antonelli has endured a challenging rookie F1 season.

The Italian is yet to out-qualify Mercedes teammate George Russell this year.

Antonelli trails his teammate by 128 points in the drivers’ championship and has now slipped behind Williams’ Alex Albon.

His home race at Monza was another error-filled weekend.

Antonelli beached his Mercedes in FP2 after going off the track at Lesmo 2.

Despite an encouraging qualifying display, Antonelli lost ground at the start and struggled to recover.

Antonelli ultimately finished ninth, losing out to Gabriel Bortoleto due to a five-second penalty for an earlier incident with Albon.

Villeneuve has been critical of Antonelli, particularly after his clash with Leclerc at the Dutch Grand Prix.

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The Canadian thinks that, unlike some other rookies, Antonelli should have been well prepared for F1 given his testing mileage for the team.

“I don’t know, you look at Bortoleto, rookie, in a Sauber, good results, get points, yeah, solid,” Villeneuve said on F1TV at Monza.

“You’re in a Mercedes. You’ve got millions of tests during winter, you’re prepared. You don’t get here as a young rookie, you get here well prepared.

“Your teammate is racing at the front, he’s got more than double your points. You can’t be satisfied with P9 and that kind of move, where he pushes another car off in the grass there.

“Yeah, Albon, you don’t do that in Formula 1, you do that in Formula 4 and even then, you don’t do that. He’s lucky he got only five seconds.”

‘The biggest issue’ for Antonelli

Antonelli was chosen as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement after the seven-time world champion’s shock decision to leave the team for Ferrari.

The 19-year-old is viewed as a ‘generational’ talent, earning comparisons to Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

Hamilton fought for the 2007 drivers’ title in his rookie season, finishing ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso, who was the reigning world champion heading into the year.

Verstappen produced an impressive rookie season at Toro Rosso, aged just 17.

The Dutchman would go on to be promoted to Red Bull in early 2016, winning on his Red Bull debut.

Villeneuve feels that Antonelli is “paying the price for the way he was brought into F1”.

“He’s paying the price for the way he was brought into Formula 1,” he explained.

“He’s brought in with a big hoopla; he’s the next Max Verstappen, he’s the next Lewis Hamilton, he’s actually replacing Lewis Hamilton.

“So when you come in with that kind of image, you need to be on it the same way Max was when he came in, the same Lewis was when he came in.

“And that’s what’s not been happening and he hasn’t been making progress. That’s the biggest issue.”