So far as Saturday’s go, it was a formidable one for younger Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
And one which added an necessary merchandise to his resume as a choice looms at Mercedes.
Antonelli captured the Method 2 Dash Race in moist and wet situations, main each lap from reverse pole place to attain his maiden win in F2.
The victory comes as questions linger in regards to the second seat at Mercedes on the F1 grid for 2025, and whether or not Antonelli shall be able to make the leap from only one season in F2 to the best degree of single-seater racing. Antonelli, who’s but to show 18, skipped F3 altogether, and whereas his already spectacular resume has him because the main candidate for the seat Lewis Hamilton will vacate on the finish of the season, it lacked a win in F2.
That modified right this moment.
Antonellii’s maiden F2 win additionally comes throughout every week the place Mercedes Staff Principal Toto Wolff addressed Antonelli’s “tough” F2 marketing campaign, and opened the door to choices for subsequent season past the younger phenom.
“Yeah, the season has been a bit tough as a result of general the 2 haven’t been on a degree and I feel the staff recognises that. That wasn’t nice, however final weekend was fairly good. The tempo was there, there have been errors in getaways, in order that’s one thing a rookie must be taught, that’s clear,” mentioned Wolff when requested about Antonelli throughout Friday’s FIA Press Convention.
“However he has a variety of stress. He’s being talked lots about. His junior system and go-karting monitor file is one in all a sort. And that’s clear that the stress ramps up. But it surely’s like his father says, a champion must be thrown within the chilly water and must swim. So they’re very clear about that,” continued Wolff. “However the driver market for the time being is sort of a dynamic, fascinating factor. I feel as a result of a number of the drivers have extra choices and a number of the groups have extra choices. So it’s fascinating. And you realize, it’s like Bernie [Ecclestone] mentioned: ‘final week I had an opinion, this week I’ve a unique one’.”
Wolff then talked about how Antonelli was dealing with all of the expectations and stress, drawing a comparability to fellow F2 driver Oliver Bearman, who made some information this week when Haas introduced he could be driving for them full-time in F1 subsequent 12 months.
“What I like by way of his angle, typically his household, who has been all the time near him, is the target evaluation of a state of affairs, and that’s good or not adequate. And I don’t suppose that the stress harms in any respect the best way he performs within the automobile and the way he drives. You’ll be able to clearly see it’s benchmarking with Ollie Bearman,” mentioned Wolff. “They’re fairly shut. Ollie had an clearly superb race in Austria and Kimi on the Sunday, had a clutch launch difficulty within the second race. So that you’ve bought to swim. That’s clear. It was a speedy profession development. He’s 17. Hasn’t bought even a driving license for a street automobile. And one of the best ones will have the ability to deal with that, with the quantity of scrutiny and the stress, and it’s going to get larger.”
If Saturday’s F2 Dash Race is any indication, Antonelli is beginning to deal with that stress quite nicely.
