2025 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[OverheatedTurbo]

If the car is performing like this with the much stiffer wing, Imagine the results in Spain.

The impact wasn’t as big as I thought. Maybe with a bit more data the car can improve.

[kurtj]

he was pole in miami ,short memory there

Well, even Maldonado has a win. That doesn't mean anything. Consistent results is what matters and so far, he is far away from George.

he is a rokkie ,Max had a lot crashes before he became a refined driver

Antonelli's reference is George, not Max. What happens in future, no one knows. For now, he would be measured against how George is performing. Just like George was measured against Lewis at Mercedes.

[mvfad]

Antonelli's result in Miami makes me wonder. In all the races so far, except Miami, he has been losing approximately 0.4s on average to Russell in hot laps (both in qualifying and in FP). In race pace the difference is smaller, but in hot laps it is usually between 0.2s and 0.6s. Why was it only different in Miami?! For now, Miami seems like a very suspicious outlier to me because... is a track where teams tend to do something different in terms of marketing, as it is an event with greater visibility.

Imola should be a track where Antonelli does well, given the experience he has on that track (not to mention that it's his home track and that he's already done some private tests with old Mercedes cars there).

[SB15]

Antonelli's result in Miami makes me wonder. In all the races so far, except Miami, he has been losing approximately 0.4s on average to Russell in hot laps (both in qualifying and in FP). In race pace the difference is smaller, but in hot laps it is usually between 0.2s and 0.6s. Why was it only different in Miami?! Miami is a track where teams tend to do something different in terms of marketing, as it is an event with greater visibility.

Imola should be a track where Antonelli does well, given the experience he has on that track (not to mention that it's his home track and that he's already done some private tests with old Mercedes cars there).

It was no sabotaging, Russell just wasn't performing better than Kimi that weekend.

[Lasssept]

[SB15]

I know Mercedes are overall extremely happy by the pace of the car

[venkyhere]

I can't believe that Antonelli is getting blamed. He is 18. And it's been a weekend with lots of changes on the car - he isn't experienced enough to 're-adapt' to the characteristics of a car, whenever big changes are brought in. Give the guy some time. Jeez.
I can't believe the 'not as big a talent as was sold to us' comment in this forum. That's like a facebook/instagram level post from a fan whose introduction to F1 was Netflix. I myself expected ANT to outdo RUS before the weekend started, given how good the guy is with slow corners and kerbs. But I can understand him being unable to maximise the car like his senior teammate.

[OverheatedTurbo]

I can't believe that Antonelli is getting blamed. He is 18. And it's been a weekend with lots of changes on the car - he isn't experienced enough to 're-adapt' to the characteristics of a car, whenever big changes are brought in. Give the guy some time. Jeez.
I can't believe the 'not as big a talent as was sold to us' comment in this forum. That's like a facebook/instagram level post from a fan whose introduction to F1 was Netflix. I myself expected ANT to outdo RUS before the weekend started, given how good the guy is with slow corners and kerbs. But I can understand him being unable to maximise the car like his senior teammate.

Don’t worry mate, it’s just one dude hate watching. I have never seen him comment here except today. Hate watching behavior.

[mvfad]

It was no sabotaging, Russell just wasn't performing better than Kimi that weekend.

I don't think it was sabotage. I believe they put an extreme qualifying setup on Antonelli's car in order for him to do well in the Miami Sprint. While Russell had a more normal race setup. But obviously that's just my opinion.

[kurtj]

No other rookie has had as much testing as Antonelli has, yet he is barely close to George on one lap speed, forget race pace. Not even George got as many opportunities of testing, before he jumped in the Mercedes and started matching Lewis. Unless some folks are absolute rookies to F1 as a sport, it's in plain sight to see this gross fact.

[SB15]

No other rookie has had as much testing as Antonelli has, yet he is barely close to George on one lap speed, forget race pace. Not even George got as many opportunities of testing, before he jumped in the Mercedes and started matching Lewis. Unless some folks are absolute rookies to F1 as a sport, it's in plain sight to see this gross fact.

Ironic how I was critical of George about his race pace (which he's now been improving recently which is great) and you come to his defense immediately but then want to thrash Kimi in the process. LOL. Double standards.

Yes he did get loads of testing time and no excuse to perform like this but I'll excuse him, because he's still a rookie and it was the C6 tyre that requires more experience to get the most out of.

Michelin tyres Lewis used in 2007 were not nearly as inconsistent and temperature sensitive as the Pirelli's.

[Sevach]

I guess George could have been a bit more aggressive in Sector 3 on his out lap with those mediums. It wasn't ready for sector 1 on his hot lap.

This kid Antonelli doesn't seem be to be as big a talent as he was sold to us. On the other hand, Hadjar is performing better in that Racing Bull, relatively speaking.

It's no surprise that George's lap on mediums didn't match his sector 1 on softs, in sector 1 the soft grip is still at peak.
Later in the lap this swings towards the medium.
If anything the surprise is him not going purple in S3.

[zibby43]

No other rookie has had as much testing as Antonelli has, yet he is barely close to George on one lap speed, forget race pace. Not even George got as many opportunities of testing, before he jumped in the Mercedes and started matching Lewis. Unless some folks are absolute rookies to F1 as a sport, it's in plain sight to see this gross fact.

All I know is that after reading two pages of this Kimi smoke, I am bookmarking this to make it live forever when he fulfills his potential.

[Lasssept]

[Seanspeed]

No other rookie has had as much testing as Antonelli has, yet he is barely close to George on one lap speed, forget race pace. Not even George got as many opportunities of testing, before he jumped in the Mercedes and started matching Lewis. Unless some folks are absolute rookies to F1 as a sport, it's in plain sight to see this gross fact.

Nobody gets much testing these days compared to what F1 used to be like.

Antonelli is doing very well all things considered. Is he a certain superstar in the making? No. But Russell is also probably the most underrated driver on the grid, a top 5 guy in the sport easily, and Antonelli has been close enough to him on average to warrant plenty of praise.

When Russell was praising Antonelli in pre-season and talking about 'if you've got it, you've got it', he clearly wasn't just trying to glaze himself. He had seen in testing that Antonelli was not gonna be some pushover. And honestly, I think Russell is probably happy about it. Somebody who is competitive and can push him, but also wont overshadow him publicly.