Four-time world champion Max Verstappen has praised the form shown by Kimi Antonelli during his second F1 campaign.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Antonelli endured some difficult moments during his rookie season in 2025 and was regularly outperformed by Mercedes team-mate George Russell.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
However, the Italian has enjoyed a much stronger start this year, taking five grand prix victories across the opening seven rounds.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
That run has left Antonelli 41 points clear at the top of the drivers\u2019 standings, although his advantage was significantly reduced after an unexpected retirement in Barcelona last time out.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
His performances have not gone unnoticed, with Verstappen praising the progress Antonelli has made this season.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“In general, at that age to be doing what he is doing and trying to find that consistency as well, it’s very impressive,\u201d Verstappen told media including RacingNews365.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso what he did in Monaco, at that age, it’s quite tough, especially in qualifying when the pressure is on to deliver these kind of laps.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“I’m just happy for him that he’s doing these things. He’s a great talent. I knew that.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cI could see that coming. In a rookie season, you have to make mistakes, but then it’s about how you learn from them, and I think he’s doing that very well.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just very nice and impressive to see what he is doing currently and also what is there still to come.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Verstappen added that there is little point in trying to compare Antonelli to other stars of the past.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cComparisons, he mentioned it himself, it’s important also just to be yourself and not look at others or try to be like someone else,\u201d\u00a0he said. \u201cJust be yourself.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows that and he just needs to do everything his own way.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause that’s also how you grow up, you do things your own way. And it’s also very important just to be your own star.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time world champion Max Verstappen has praised the form shown by Kimi Antonelli during his second F1 campaign.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,2476,578,2479,2477,2480,2478,930,576,577,932,1885,2475,582,82],"class_list":["post-757630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}