Kimi Antonelli had a forgettable official debut for Mercedes in FP1 at the Italian GP. The 18-year-old had a high-speed spin and crash at Parabolica just 10 minutes into the session. Before this crash, Antonelli topped the timesheets and raised everyone’s eyebrows. Mercedes also hyped that “astonishing” pace being better than Lewis Hamilton while downplaying the crash. This is something that irked Martin Brundle.
Antonelli’s initial times were quicker than Hamilton’s in FP1. Autosport reported that the Italian prodigy was carrying a lot more speed through the Lesmo and Ascari corners relative to Hamilton and Verstappen.
Antonelli into the wall!
It’s a high-speed spin into the barrier at Parabolica for the youngster, who reports over the radio that he’s OK.
The red flags are out #F1 #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/aQQQPqjaeb
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 30, 2024
Now, this could be taken with a pinch of salt, as it was only FP1. So, the two world champions may not have been pushing a lot. Meanwhile, Antonelli only had one hour of FP1 running and thus he wanted to impress with his pace in the W15.
Brundle also criticized the 18-year-old as he pushed a bit too much which caused his 45G crash. Moreover, the Sky Sports F1 pundit also rubbished the hype by Mercedes about Antonelli’s pace. In a Sky Sports F1 YouTube video, he told Craig Slater, “Not really, no. I can see the eyeroll of many of the established drivers.”
“A lot to learn, he’s a young man. But we know from his junior racing, he seems to have bit of a special talent, he looks like he could be another Hamilton, Verstappen-style find – once-in-a-generation. You don’t know until the pressure’s on.”, Brundle added.
The former McLaren man stated that Mercedes can “top spin” the narrative around Antonelli as they want. However, unless the 18-year-old performs under pressure next season, it is too early to comment on his potential.
Antonelli will face the pressure of being in a top team in 2025
Despite the FP1 crash, Mercedes have confirmed Antonelli as Hamilton‘s replacement for 2025. Moreover, with the Silver Arrows’ resurgence lately — with three wins in the last five races — the Italian prodigy is coming into a top team directly.
If Mercedes retain their competitiveness next season too, then Antonelli has a steep challenge at hand. Besides getting up to speed with the complexities of F1, the 18-year-old will also have to deliver at a very high benchmark. The hype around his talent due to his impeccable junior record only makes it tougher for him.
Brundle also stated, “I do think that Antonelli, they can train him up and he’ll learn the hard way, he’ll make mistakes.” Whether he can match someone like George Russell and beat him in his rookie season will be an interesting aspect to watch next season.
Antonelli was also under pressure on Friday with all the attention on him ahead of Mercedes’ impending confirmation of his 2025 seat. While he caved under that pressure to crash out, the Silver Arrows still decided to go ahead with him. Toto Wolff stated that he had made up his mind about Antonelli just five minutes after Hamilton’s Ferrari announcement.
