McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has hailed the impact Kimi Antonelli has had this year, stating he is an \u201casset for F1\u201d.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Antonelli joined the F1 grid last year as a rookie driver but often struggled for form alongside his more experienced team-mate George Russell.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
However, the Italian has taken a notable step forward this year with eight grands prix wins, leaving him with a sizeable lead in the drivers’ championship.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
With an 81-point advantage, Antonelli is seen as the favourite for the title as the campaign approaches its final third.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
When asked if he has any advice for Antonelli, Stella told media including RacingNews365: \u201cI would give him the wrong advice because we are chasing him!\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cI care about Andrea Kimi, first of all, because he\u2019s an asset for F1. He\u2019s doing so well.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cDeservedly, he\u2019s leading the drivers\u2019 championship and, honestly, every time I hear from him, I see him, his stance, to me it looks like he\u2019s growing day by day.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, he knows very well what to do. I\u2019m sure he will keep this attitude, this speed, this consistency that he has expressed so far in the championship, and it will be a very difficult one to chase.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tAntonelli ‘taking fans away from Ferrari’<\/p>\n
Despite having a rich history with F1, Italy has been starved of F1 success of late, with Ferrari enduring a title drought that stretches back to 2008.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Alpine boss Flavio Briatore, who, like Stella, is Italian, highlighted that Antonelli has quickly established himself as one of the country’s most recognisable sportsmen.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this moment in Italy you have two big names \u2013 [Janick] Sinner and Kimi,\u201d\u00a0he said.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Kimi takes away the fans from Ferrari as well, little by little, because really it\u2019s incredible what he is performing this year.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s performing incredibly. No mistakes, very strong, very clear and still very, very young.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd like Stella said, it\u2019s good for F1 and it\u2019s very good for Italy as well, because to have the potential champion like Kimi is good for the sport, it\u2019s good for the country.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we are lucky we have two super guys, Sinner and Kimi.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has hailed the impact Kimi Antonelli has had this year, stating he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-897866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897866","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=897866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}