Helmut Marko Believes Kimi Antonelli Is a ‘Huge Risk’ for Mercedes

There will be six new faces on the F1 grid in 2025 but perhaps none as are highly rated as Kimi Antonelli, who is set to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. At 18 years old, Antonelli is touted as one of the most promising talents coming to F1. Helmut Marko, however, feels Mercedes made a mistake.

Promoting drivers at a young age wasn’t the issue Marko pointed out in his recent interview with Sport.de. After all, Red Bull themselves had Max Verstappen on the grid when he was just 17 years old. But the difference lay in the fact that Verstappen didn’t have to suit up for a team gunning for wins and titles from the get-go.

“Antonelli is a risk,” Marko said. “We took a similar risk with Max, who was even younger when he got into an F1 car. But he wasn’t in our top team and for that reason there was less pressure on him.”

Verstappen made his debut for Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso, and it took a year-and-a-half for the Milton Keynes-based squad to field him on their main team. Admittedly, he brushed up on a lot of skills while at Toro Rosso, with most of them majorly revolving around his aggressiveness with the car.

Antonelli, on the other hand, has been tasked with filling in the shoes of a seven-time World Champion in Hamilton. The Italian will need time to get up to speed with a top team, but it could be difficult for Mercedes to be too patient.

Antonelli will have to deal with heavy external expectations. He skipped F3 and went directly from F4 to F2 in 2024, and just midway into the season, Mercedes announced his signing for the Silver Arrows. As such, he will be expected to perform from the get-go.

Challenging year ahead for Antonelli

Mercedes finished fourth in 2024, falling short of their objective to contend for the title. Now, they will feature a rookie in their driver lineup — one who may need time to settle in before developing into the fast, consistent driver the team envisions.

But the Brackley-based team would not want to wait too long. Team Principal Toto Wolff has already talked up Antonelli a lot, and even drew in comparisons to Verstappen himself. On top of that, Mercedes has been out of the title picture for almost four years now — something they are desperate to change.

“We’d rather have a problem slowing him down, than making him faster” ⚡

Toto Wolff reflects on Kimi Antonelli’s BIG 45G crash in FP1 pic.twitter.com/sygWwgwPID

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 30, 2024

Antonelli could, of course, deliver a stellar rookie campaign, much like Hamilton did in 2007 when he came tantalizingly close to winning the Drivers’ Championship. Yet, in this age of social media, the immense hype surrounding Antonelli might prove counterproductive, potentially pressuring him into uncharacteristic mistakes.