{"id":374406,"date":"2025-12-27T05:15:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T05:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/374406\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T05:15:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T05:15:24","slug":"f1-rookie-lauds-verstappen-as-extraordinary-reveals-shared-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/374406\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 rookie lauds Verstappen as \u2018extraordinary\u2019, reveals shared passion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/kimi-antonelli\" title=\"Kimi Antonelli\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kimi Antonelli<\/a> has offered a glimpse into the special bond he shares with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-teams\/red-bull-racing\" title=\"Red Bull Racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Bull Racing<\/a> driver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/max-verstappen\" title=\"Max Verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Verstappen<\/a>.\u201cWe can talk about so many things we enjoy besides Formula 1, like GT racing, which is a passion for both of us.&#8221;- Kimi Antonelli<\/p>\n<p>Speaking via Gazzetta Dello Sport, the Mercedes rookie, who recently reacted to the praise meted out by Verstappen, acknowledged it before dubbing the four-time world champion as extraordinary.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a great honour. We&#8217;ve built a wonderful relationship with him this year, and he&#8217;s been a mentor to all of us rookies. I consider him an extraordinary driver, and receiving these compliments from him is special,\u201d Antonelli began.<\/p>\n<p>The young Italian continued by highlighting their shared passion away from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a>.<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/antonelli-and-verstappen-694a812211045.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"antonelli-and-verstappen-jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen &#8211; Photo: Red Bull Content Pool<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe best thing is that we can talk about so many things we enjoy besides Formula 1, like GT racing, which is a passion for both of us,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen has often earned plaudits from several rookies, and only recently did Stake <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1\" title=\"F1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a> driver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/dad-of-rookies-verstappen-reveals-which-youngsters-are-raw-talents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gabriel Bortoleto, alongside Antonelli, label the Dutch driver the \u2018dad of the rookies.\u2019<\/a>Antonelli follows Verstappen\u2019s path in off-season raceEarlier,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/mercedes-driver-follows-verstappens-lead-with-pseudonym-at-karting-series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Antonelli followed a similar path to Verstappen <\/a>when he partook in an off-season race under a pseudonym.<\/p>\n<p>It is worth recalling that the Dutch driver earlier took part in a test outing at the N\u00fcrburgring under the pseudonym FranZ Hermann. Antonelli, on his outing, opted for the name Henry Shovlin.<\/p>\n<p>Catch up with GPBlog\u2019s Latest Paddock Update<\/p>\n<p>With the post-2025 season finale action and reaction continuing, our paddock update is the place to be.<\/p>\n<p>Follow and subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Spotify to stay up to date with all the happenings as they unfold, following the final Grand Prix of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the latest episode of our paddock update here \ud83d\udc47<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli has offered a glimpse into the special bond he shares with Red Bull Racing driver Max&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,35119,813,816,10115,825,189983,946,85],"class_list":["post-374406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes-amg-f1-team","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374406","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=374406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}