Kimi Antonelli explains what ‘really surprised’ him about George Russell after his first F1 race weekend

Andrea Kimi Antonelli has turned plenty of heads in the paddock after his impressive start to life in Formula 1.

Mercedes took what to many outsiders looked like a gamble by replacing the most successful driver in the history of F1 in Lewis Hamilton with an 18-year-old who skipped Formula 3 and was racing in karts as recently as 2022.

Team principal Toto Wolff has put his full confidence in Kimi Antonelli this year, despite the likes of Carlos Sainz and other established stars being available in the driver market.

Wolff has played down expectations on Antonelli, but F1 drivers are hard-wired to try and extract the maximum potential out of their cars, no matter how little experience they have racing them.

The Italian has done very well so far this season, securing 22 points for Mercedes with a P4 finish in Australia, and a P6 result in China.

While Antonelli has been slightly fortunate in both instances, drivers have to create their own luck in Formula 1 and he’s proven to be a useful foil to teammate George Russell.

However, Russell has kicked on over the winter and left his rookie teammate surprised with just how hard he’s pushing the W16 from the moment the race weekend begins.

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Kimi Antonelli taken aback by George Russell’s performances in F1 practice sessions

Antonelli was asked on The Fast and The Curious Podcast if anything surprised him during his first two Grand Prix weekends, and he said: “What really surprised me was the level of intensity that you have to keep from free practice 1.

“From FP1 all the way to when you get to the race, the level of intensity, driving-wise, especially, really surprised me.

“It doesn’t seem like it, but already in FP1, everyone is pretty much pushing, not to the absolute limit, but very close to the limit.

“So, you always want to keep up and the level of intensity is quite high. It really caught me [out] that, especially the first week in Australia, because I was like, I’ve got three free practices, I’m going to take it easy, FP1, but then at the end of FP1, you’re quite off from your teammate and you’re like, oh, I need to like speed up, I need to catch up.

“So what I really understood is that no matter if it’s FP1, you need to keep a high level of intensity because obviously you want to start with the right feeling and not having to improve massively for the next session, because sometimes it’s just difficult to make such a step in driving.

“You just want to start already at a good level and then you have more confidence to progress, because if you start too much on the back foot, then to catch up sometimes can be really difficult.

“So definitely, of course, you don’t want to go over the limit straight away and have a crash like it happened, unfortunately, in Monza, but you want to be close to that edge in order to be able to progress session by session.”

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George Russell has helped Kimi Antonelli identify key improvement he needs to make this season

Russell has gone under the radar this season with how strong his performances have been, despite finishing on the podium in Australia and China.

Mercedes would argue they have the second-fastest car on the grid right now, but if Ferrari and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen hook up a flying lap in qualifying, then realistically, Russell and Antonelli should be competed for spots on the third row of the grid.

The British driver has accumulated 130 Grand Prix worth of experience since his debut with Williams, and Antonelli is keen to learn from Russell’s driving style to get the most out of Mercedes’ car.

The 27-year-old’s contract expires at the end of the season, and Ralf Schumacher believes Russell is fighting for his F1 future, given Mercedes are interested in signing Verstappen.

Right now, it appears as though he’s doing everything right to earn himself a new deal with the Silver Arrows.