{"id":88651,"date":"2025-08-24T02:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T02:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/88651\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T02:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T02:19:11","slug":"gabriel-bortoleto-admits-kimi-antonelli-not-in-an-easy-position-at-mercedes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/88651\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel Bortoleto admits Kimi Antonelli not in an easy position\u2019 at Mercedes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gabriel Bortoleto empathised with fellow rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a> amid a frustrating spell for the Italian with Mercedes in Formula 1<\/a> this season. <\/p>\n

The 18-year-old came into the paddock with lofty expectations. Having skipped Formula 3, the Italian was directly promoted to Formula 2 after winning the FRECA title in his rookie season in 2023.<\/p>\n

After Lewis Hamilton\u2019s announcement that he was leaving the German marque for Ferrari, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff was quick to hand Antonelli a promotion to F1.<\/p>\n

Antonelli began his career in the sport on a strong note, securing a maiden Sprint pole position at Miami and backing it up with a career-first podium finish in Canada.<\/p>\n

However, since then, the European leg of the season has seen the Italian struggle massively with the W16. Since that breakthrough result in Montreal, the 18-year-old has only managed to score a solitary point for the Silver Arrows in Hungary. Bortoleto, who raced against Antonelli in F2 last year, empathised with his plight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about anyone\u2019s performance or confidence because you never know what is going on inside the team,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, so many rumours around everything. I feel like Kimi is a very good driver, he\u2019s talented.<\/p>\n

\u201cI raced him in F2 last year and he\u2019s in a good car, you know, very good car and he has a very strong teammate as well, so it\u2019s not easy to be in that position.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I think there was a lot of expectations into this season for him and, yeah, I just\u2026 hopefully, he can get some of this confidence back and then perform well because it\u2019s always good to see other rookies doing well. It shows that our generation is strong, so, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GabrielGabriel Bortoleto has debuted alongside Kimi Antonelli in 2025<\/p>\n

Russell clarifies Mercedes stance on Antonelli<\/p>\n

Antonelli\u2019s struggles with the W16 essentially started from Imola onwards. The team had fitted an upgraded rear suspension that exacerbated the car\u2019s inherent imbalance and promiscuously small operating window.<\/p>\n

His team-mate Russell was also vocal about how the car had become a difficult beast to tame in terms of driveability, adding further credence to Antonelli\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n

Russell explained how Antonelli needs to put his entire season into perspective while evaluating his recent struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as a young driver, you\u2019ve got to look at it objectively, which is in terms of his own personal performance,\u201d he assessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can argue he\u2019s probably actually performing better than he did at the start of the year when you look at the deficit in terms of lap time. It\u2019s just the differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Canada, when we were on pole, he was in fourth place, over half a second behind. In Spa, he was only three tenths behind me. But that was the difference between out in Q1 or getting through to Q3.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes decided to revert to the pre-Imola spec rear suspension<\/a> at the Hungarian Grand Prix and hopes that this could bring the team back in contention for wins.<\/p>\n

But Russell clarified that there is no pressure on Antonelli to mend his ways immediately post the summer break, with a clear understanding that the side is willing to back his team-mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team have made it very clear he shouldn\u2019t worry about those results,\u201d Russell asserted. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still done a very good job considering his experience. It\u2019s the car that has brought us both backwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s, of course, very difficult to accept when you\u2019re in that position. But it\u2019s never easy when the car is not performing as you expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Why Mercedes is unconcerned by Kimi Antonelli\u2019s debut F1 struggles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabriel Bortoleto empathised with fellow rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli amid a frustrating spell for the Italian with Mercedes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,9047,19579,6964,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-88651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gabriel-bortoleto","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-mercedes","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}