Lewis Hamilton has come to the defence of Kimi Antonelli, claiming the young Italian is “doing fantastic” in his debut season of Formula 1 despite a recent bad run of form.<\/p>\n
Antonelli<\/a> joined Mercedes<\/a> at the start of 2025 amidst plenty of hype after moving up following just one season of Formula 2 and replacing seven-time World Champion Hamilton<\/a> after his move to Ferrari<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the 18-year-old started his F1 career strongly, securing five points finishes in the first six races as well as a podium in Canada back in June, he has since come under increasing pressure due to a lack of results, having collided with Max Verstappen on the opening lap in Austria, which eliminated both, and non-scoring in Great Britain.<\/p>\n Antonelli endured a miserable weekend in Belgium, which included another non-score after failing to advance beyond the first stage of Qualifying for the Sprint and Grand Prix, the Italian appearing emotional in the media pen after the latter.<\/p>\n It’s not the first time pressure has impacted Antonelli’s performances on track, which included crashing on his F1 practice debut<\/a> at the Italian Grand Prix last year amidst the hype.<\/p>\n He also admitted that he had burnt himself out ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix<\/a> with commitments ahead of his home race this year.<\/p>\n