Villeneuve turns up the heat on Antonelli: 'He’s replacing Lewis Hamilton'

15:40, 08 Sep

Updated: 16:25, 08 Sep

byNorberto Mujica

Andrea Kimi Antonelli is currently in the spotlight, but not for a good reason. Following another scruffy F1 outing, this time in Italy, the Mercedes rookie finds himself under the ever scrutinous eye of former champion Jacques Villeneuve.

After beaching his W16 at the start of FP2, Antonelli managed to recover well the next day, taking P7 right behind his teammate George Rusell during qualifying for the race in Monza.

That P7 would transform into P6 after Lewis Hamilton's 5-place grid drop was enforced. However, his qualifying efforts would be unfruitful after a bad start saw him demoted to P10.

Villeneuve, judging Antonelli's performance couldn't help but make the comparisson to Gabriel Bortoleto, the Italian's fellow rookie employed by Stake F1, who, despite the obvious difference in machinery, and lack of previous preparation in F1 cars, contrasting with Antonelli's intense TPC (Testing of Previous Cars) programme, often finds himself on the point-scoring side of the order.

“I don’t know, you look at Bortoleto, rookie, in a Sauber, good results, get points, yeah, solid,” Villeneuve said to F1TV after the race.

“You’re in a Mercedes," Villeneuve continued. "You’ve got millions of tests during winter, you’re prepared. You don’t get here as a young rookie, you get here well prepared."

Villeneuve: "You don't do that in Formula 1'"

The 1997 World Champion then addressed the incident that resulted in Antonelli picking up another penalty and another penalty point on his license, with Williams driver Alexander Albon.

“Your teammate is racing at the front, he’s got more than double your points. You can’t be satisfied with P9 and that kind of move, where he pushes another car off in the grass there."

“Yeah, (about) Albon, you don’t do that in Formula 1, you do that in Formula 4 and even then, you don’t do that. He’s lucky he got only five seconds.”

Villeneuve: Antonelli's paying the price for "big hoopla" introduction to F1

Antonelli's F1 debut was preceeded with labels being put on him such as 'prodigy', for instance, and being compared with reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen and the man whose big shoes he was called upon to fill at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton's. Therein lies the root cause for the Italian youngster's struggles, believes Villeneuve.

“He’s paying the price for the way he was brought into Formula 1. He’s brought in with a big hoopla; he’s the next Max Verstappen, he’s the next Lewis Hamilton, he’s actually replacing Lewis Hamilton.

“So when you come in with that kind of image, you need to be on it the same way Max was when he came in, the same Lewis was when he came in.

“And that’s what’s not been happening and he hasn’t been making progress. That’s the biggest issue," the F1 former champion concluded.

Toto Wolff, Mercedes' team principal and CEO, whilst assessing his rookie driver's Italian Grand Prix, was also critical of Antonelli, describing his performance as "underwhelming."