{"id":625144,"date":"2026-04-23T06:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T06:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625144\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T06:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T06:20:08","slug":"now-he-can-win-the-world-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625144\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNow he can win the World Championship\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Helmut Marko delivered a striking endorsement of Kimi Antonelli, declaring the Mercedes rookie now has what it takes to fight for the Formula 1 World Championship after a strong start to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statsf1.com\/en\/2026.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2026 season<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Austrian, who had previously questioned Antonelli\u2019s consistency, admitted his view has shifted as the Italian\u2019s performances have stabilised and improved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw straight away that Antonelli was very fast, but he was inconsistent,\u201d Marko told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.derwesten.de\/sport\/formel-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Der Western<\/a>. \u201cThis year the music has changed. Now I believe he is capable of fighting for the World Championship.\u201dThe comments underline the impact Antonelli has made at Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, where his emergence has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandprix247.com\/f1-opinion\/rapid-rise-of-kimi-antonelli-at-mercedes-a-big-wake-up-call-for-george-russell\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reshaped the internal dynamic alongside George Russell<\/a> and reinforced the team\u2019s return to the front of the grid.<\/p>\n<p>Marko also pointed to the next generation of potential talent with Austrian links, highlighting young karters already on his radar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToto Wolff has an ace up his sleeve: his son Jack, who is pushing really hard in karting, just like Gerhard Berger\u2019s son Johan,\u201d he said, referring to Toto Wolff and Gerhard Berger. \u201cI\u2019m in constant telephone contact with Gerhard. We\u2019ll see if they can do it, all the right things are there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite his long standing involvement in driver development, Marko emphasised that both prospects remain at a very early stage of their careers.<\/p>\n<p>He also addressed his new position as ambassador for the Red Bull Ring, outlining plans to boost interest in motorsport events in Austria beyond Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope I can help increase interest, especially for the MotoGP race at the Red Bull Ring,\u201d Marko said. \u201cI\u2019m a big motorcycle fan. I\u2019ll be present at the Classics events in May and, of course, at the Formula 1 Grand Prix at the end of June.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heading to Round 4, the Miami Grand Prix next month, Antonelli leads the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Formula 1<\/a> World Championship. He is the youngest driver ever to do so in the sport&#8217;s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Helmut Marko delivered a striking endorsement of Kimi Antonelli, declaring the Mercedes rookie now has what it takes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,236469,813,816,4405,10115,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-625144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-f1-drivers-news","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-helmut-marko","15":"tag-kimi-antonelli","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625144","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=625144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}