Kimi Antonelli Leaves a Mark On the Most Demanding Man of the F1 Paddock

Kimi Antonelli was announced as Mercedes’ 2025 driver after he took part in FP1 of the Italian GP. Since he crashed during FP1, the F1 community didn’t expect the Silver Arrows to straight away announce him. Despite his crash, the Red Bull advisor, Helmut Marko was impressed with the Mercedes prodigy and explained why the Italian’s collision would not bother him.

Joe Saward, in his Blog — Green Notebook wrote, “Antonelli made a big impression with his brief FP1 outing, which ended with a sizable crash. This caused Toto Wolff’s wrinkles to deepen. Still, it impressed Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko who said that the crash was not such a big deal because the kid had been impressively fast.”

| Helmut Marko was impressed with Kimi Antonelli. He said that the accident wasn’t such a big deal because the kid had been so impressively fast.

Marko would love to have Antonelli at Red Bull as it could help ease the current nail-biting situation in the team.

[@Joesaward] pic.twitter.com/cktvKTp3p6

— F1_MercHub (@F1MercHub) September 4, 2024

Antonelli has often been referred to as the next Max Verstappen. Wolff explained how it barely took him five minutes to sign the Italian. Verstappen, in his early years, always used to be on or over the limit, which resulted in crashes. Antonelli seemingly has the same characteristic.

Antonelli went to the top of the timing sheets with his first lap in FP1. He was improving significantly on his second lap, before crashing out of the Parabolica. The data suggested that Antonelli was carrying 10+ km/h extra through the chicanes compared to the likes of Charles Leclerc. This in itself demonstrates the raw pace of the Italian.

Furthermore, impressing Marko isn’t an easy job. During his tenure at Red Bull, Marko has scouted multiple talented drivers such as Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, and Carlos Sainz, and has a history of ruthlessly dealing with them. However, Marko wasn’t the only one impressed by Antonelli.

Frederic Vasseur and James Vowles also praised Antonelli

The whole F1 grid sang praises after Antonelli pushed the limits on his very first lap in the W15. Wolff and Lewis Hamilton after the session ranked the future Mercedes driver highly. Interestingly, even the competitors from Williams and Ferrari praised Antonelli.

Vowles on F1TV said, “The first lap he put out there was faster than anyone else, and not by a small margin. The second lap, if he completed it, would’ve been a heck of a lot faster. He pushed too hard too soon. But the pace is there.”

Similarly, Vasseur was all praises for Antonelli and defended him after his crash. The Ferrari team principal explained how the pressure in F1 is different and Antonelli will need time to adapt.