Antonelli raises doubts over move to F1: 'I still make a lot of mistakes'
12:27, 21 Jul 2024
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Andrea Kimi Antonelli has won his first main race in Formula 2. The Mercedes junior seems more relaxed after his first win in Britain. Antonelli therefore feels liberated, but doubts he is ready for Formula 1 yet.
Since the start of the Formula 2 season, the spotlight has been on Oliver Bearman and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The two Prema Racing drivers were labelled as the big favourites for the title and a spot in F1. Whereas Bearman has already secured his seat for next year at Haas, Antonelli doubts he is that far along.
''I don’t know if I would be ready, to be honest because I’m still learning a lot in F2. I still make quite a few mistakes. These few details really matter. I’m still not doing them right. I’m still not doing everything right. So I don’t know, to be honest. But I’m trying to improve and to not make the same mistakes again. And I think today was the proof," the Italian informed after his race win at the Hungaroring.
Is Antonelli ready for Formula 1 yet?
Antonelli has been linked all season with the seat at Mercedes for 2025. Toto Wolff is a big fan of Antonelli and has had a seat vacant for next season since the departure of Lewis Hamilton. However, at 17, Antonelli is still very young and so a move to a top F1 team may come a year too soon.
Antonelli does note that his sprint victory two weeks back at Silverstone, has boosted his confidence. ''The win was really important. Even if it was in the wet, it was really important for the mental side and also gave us a lot of faith, also for the team because we knew we could do great things. It’s just we didn’t really figure out how to do it, we were struggling a little bit. This weekend, in the sprint race even though I pushed a bit too much on the tyres the pace was looking quite good so definitely it was good for the team to see that. We tried to change a bit of the balance because yesterday, for example, we had a bit too much understeer. It played out very well."
So the pressure seems completely off his shoulders now: "From Silverstone, I feel way lighter. Quite a bit less pressure on my shoulder. The pressure was building up weekend by weekend, obviously with all the talking, and Silverstone was a big relief for me. This weekend I was driving and my mind was way more free than the previous weekend. I was driving way more natural without really thinking about the outcome. I think it really showed."
This article was written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.
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The Prema car this year reminds me of the Mercedes car from prior to 2020.
When it is in clear air, the drivers could just use their talents to drive away from the driver in P2. See what Bearman could do in the sprint race at Spielberg or what Antonelli did at Silverstone in wet conditions and also in the main race today.
When they are not following another car in dirty air, they can pull a gap to the car behind.
Antonelly pulled a gap of 6 seconds on his older hard tyres compared to Verschoor on newer ones, then after a tyre change, pulled another 12 seconds gap again to Martins who finished in P2.