Kimi Antonelli explains why George Russell is so hard to beat in Formula 1 as the Mercedes starlet points to his colleague’s experience and confidence as two benchmarks to chase down at the F1 2025 Bahrain GP.
The Brit is a stern test for anyone in the sport and proved to be one of the most challenging rivals of Lewis Hamilton’s career, before the latter dramatically opted to move to Ferrari.
He now sits fourth in the driver standings and has podiums to his name at the Australian GP and Chinese GP, remaining within touching distance of McLaren’s Lando Norris at the top of the table.
And now the 18-year-old Italian is tasked with looking into his data to try to see how he can close up on the Silver Arrows’ lead driver, and got close at the Japanese GP by finishing just 1.3 seconds behind after 53 laps.
But at the Bahrain International Circuit, Antonelli admits the truth of why the 27-year-old is so good might not lay within the numbers as explains why Russell is so hard to beat in Formula 1.
“George is driving really well and he’s really helping me to develop and push myself even further,” Antonelli told members of the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “But I’m happy because I’m getting there slowly.
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“I think, now he has quite a bit of experience with the car [and] in F1 in general, the main difference is you can see the confidence he has; especially he knows how to place the car, and also where the car is going to end up in a corner while pushing.
“So there’s a lot of knowledge and confidence [there] as well, but I think Suzuka was a really big step for me in terms of confidence and understanding the car, so I’m really looking forward to this weekend because obviously it is a track that I know.
“Conditions will be much, much different compared to what we had in [pre-season] testing, because it’s going to be much, much hotter, but I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do during the weekend.”
Antonelli reflects on his rookie Formula 1 season and explains key successes
Antonelli comes into the sport tipped as an era-defining talent similar to the likes of Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna before him, and already has a CV to back the claim up, winning 20 competitions on his way to Formula 1.
And he is already proving to be a hit in F1 too as he finds himself fifth in the standings and with 30 points to his name, on pace to eclipse Hamilton’s rookie record total from the 2007 season.
His sixth place finish in Japan was the first time he proved himself to be on the true pace of the established and leading drivers in the sport, and indicates he is finding his feet incredibly quicky. So how does he reflect on his debut campaign?
“So far I think [things] went pretty well,” Antonelli added. “The thing I was the happiest [with] is the consistency I had throughout the three races, and [I] keep trying to improve weekend by weekend.
“Every weekend is massive learning for me, especially learning about the tyre I think was really helpful, and I think it’s going to be really helpful to have the same compounds [as Japan] this weekend as well, just because I’m understanding more and more of the tyre.
“I think in the first especially couple of races, I really struggled with warm-up in qualifying, and I think Suzuka was a big step forward in that side. So obviously massive learning, but so far I’m happy with how it’s going.”
