{"id":149469,"date":"2025-09-17T09:53:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T09:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/149469\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T09:53:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T09:53:17","slug":"max-verstappen-details-what-i-like-about-kimi-antonelli-amid-f1-struggles-with-mercedes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/149469\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen details ‘what I like’ about Kimi Antonelli amid F1 struggles with Mercedes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> has heaped praise on rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, despite the topsy-turvy start to his Formula 1<\/a> career with Mercedes.<\/p>\n

The Italian\u2019s first full season in the sport has been a mixed bag in terms of both his personal performance and the inherent instability of the W16. <\/p>\n

While Antonelli is the highest-placed rookie in the Drivers\u2019 Championship, he trails a mammoth 128 points behind team-mate George Russell.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old has indeed shown sparks of brilliance \u2013 including a career-first F1 podium at the Canadian Grand Prix. <\/p>\n

That said, he has been prone to making costly errors that have cost him and the German marque crucial points in the Constructors\u2019 Championship.<\/p>\n

But Verstappen, who himself is no stranger to Antonelli\u2019s proclivity for mistakes having DNFed on the first lap of the Austrian Grand Prix owing to Antonelli\u2019s lock-up, is confident that the Mercedes driver is capable of bouncing back despite this period of struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking mistakes in your first season in F1 is part of the equation,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I like most about him is that he doesn\u2019t take it easy. He always gives it his all, and I see myself in him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCould he do better? Of course. But I know how talented he is\u2026 it shows. He just needs a little patience, like everyone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy starting with a top team, which, moreover, isn\u2019t consistently fighting for wins. He\u2019ll be fine, he just needs a little time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MaxKimi Antonelli eliminated Max Verstappen in Austria<\/p>\n

Russell reveals Mercedes stance on Antonelli <\/p>\n

Coming into the season, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was categorical about his expectations from Antonelli. <\/p>\n

Having said that, even the Austrian was left unimpressed with how error-ridden his race was at Zandvoort<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Russell, too, sympathises with the 19-year-old\u2019s plight and has urged him to look at his whole season and not just the mistakes to take perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a young driver you\u2019ve got to look at it objectively, which is in terms of his own personal performance,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can argue he\u2019s probably actually performing better than he did at the start of the year when you look at the deficit in terms of lap time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the differences. In Canada, when we were on pole he was in fourth place over half a second behind and in Spa he was only three-tenths behind me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that was the difference between out in Q1 or getting through to Q3.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Briton went on to reveal that the Brackley-based squad is fully behind Antonelli and that the team has been very open and clear with the 19-year-old about how they look to tackle this prolonged period of incapacity. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe team have made it very clear he shouldn\u2019t worry about those results, he\u2019s still doing a very good job considering his experience,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe car has brought us both backwards. So that\u2019s, of course, very difficult to accept when you\u2019re in that position.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never easy when the car is not performing as you expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 George Russell downplays potential Mercedes advantage over McLaren for F1 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has heaped praise on rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, despite the topsy-turvy start to his Formula 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[100594,64,63,817,825,945,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-149469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-antonelli","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-max-verstappen","13":"tag-mercedes","14":"tag-motor","15":"tag-motor-sports","16":"tag-motosport","17":"tag-motosports","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}