Max Verstappen has hailed the performance of Kimi Antonelli this year following his rapid ascension to the forefront of the F1 pecking order.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old Mercedes driver has bagged six wins so far this year and holds a 50-point lead over Lewis Hamilton at the head of the drivers’ championship.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
His current position follows a 2025 rookie season that included four DNFs and a difficult mid-season run.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Having quickly been thrust into the F1 world, Verstappen stated he first noticed the Italian’s early performances in senior karting categories.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he was still in go-karting, you could already see that he was one of the standout talents,\u201d he said.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cYou grow from the junior categories into the senior categories. What was also very impressive, and I always say that drivers should do this before they go to cars, is to at least do a few races in a shifter category to learn a bit how to use the gears, how to race and how to do starts.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cHis first race, he immediately pulled it off between the big guns in go-karting. At that young age, you can see that raw talent, and then it just continued into cars.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cHe also made quite a quick jump to F1, and it\u2019s normal that in your first year there are certain mistakes that you make. I think we all make them.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Antonelli’s position at the head of the standings has been a surprise for many, considering how early he stll is in his F1 career.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
But Verstappen said Antonelli’s improvement in his second season was in line with the normal development of a driver at this level.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, when you\u2019re driving for a top team, it\u2019s always highlighted a little bit more,\u201d he said.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for me, there was never a doubt that he would make a jump the year after and already be a lot more consistently competitive.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s normal in the progression of a driver. In your rookie season it can be quite tough, but at the moment, of course, he\u2019s doing an amazing job.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has hailed the performance of Kimi Antonelli this year following his rapid ascension to the forefront…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848995,"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-848994","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\/848994","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=848994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}