Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s rookie season with Mercedes has been a rollercoaster ride for the youngster, who is currently in the midst of a bad run of form.<\/p>\n
Kimi Antonelli<\/a> took the chequered flag outside of the points in Belgium for the sixth time in the last seven races. His bad run of form features four DNFs, with a podium in Montreal being the only silver lining, splitting the poor results.<\/p>\n F1 fans believe Mercedes made an error by calling up Antonelli<\/a> too soon after his emotional media session following qualifying for the Belgian GP. <\/p>\n However, Mercedes chief Andrew Shovlin defended Antonelli\u2019s recent results<\/a>, explaining that the development of their 2025 spec W16 has regressed throughout the season. This has made it more difficult for the Mercedes<\/a> drivers to compete with their rivals at the top.<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0All you need to know about Mercedes F1 Team from team principal to lineage<\/a><\/p>\n Kimi Antonelli hasn\u2019t shown his potential \u2018as often\u2019 as we would have expected at Mercedes<\/p>\n Speaking on The Race F1 Podcast, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm noted the surprise of both Antonelli and Mercedes in their lack of competitiveness throughout the 2025 season.<\/p>\n \u201cThe peaks have been there, they just haven\u2019t happened quite as often as we would have expected,\u201d Mitchell-Malm said. The floor has been very low as well, which I think is what has surprised Antonelli and surprised Mercedes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve just had a very extreme version of what we could have had or what we probably thought might be the worst-case scenario. It\u2019s worse than we expected, but it\u2019s just at the extreme end of what you get when you put an 18-year-old in an F1 car when he\u2019s had one season in Formula 2. <\/p>\n \u201cThey knew they were taking a gamble. When you do that, you accept that there will be highs and lows through that first season, and you need to stick with your driver through those low points, it would make no sense for them to get rid of him.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats<\/a><\/p>\n Mercedes sending Kimi Antonelli out on loan would be an \u2018acknowledgement\u2019 of the damage they\u2019ve done<\/p>\n