Lagrue: Together with the driver we hope to bring him to F1

This year, 17-year-old driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who won the European Formula Regional title last season, will make his debut in Formula 2, bypassing F3. Although he is Italian, he does not study at the Ferrari Racing Academy, but is part of the Mercedes youth program.

It is managed by Gwen Lagrue, and he noticed the talented man while he was karting.

“I don’t know about the others, but I know what we’re doing,” Lagrue told The Race. – I don’t choose many riders. Then we give them the time they need, support and guide them, because this is not a short-term project. When we sign a driver, we usually try to give him all the support we can and take him to the highest level. We hope for Formula 1, but in any case we guarantee him a continuation of his professional career.

For example, we were able to organize a place in Formula 1 for Esteban Ocon. And at the end of the 2016 season the opportunity arose to move to Force India. He performed there for two years and did very well.
and we can say that it was during that period that his career took off…

To be fair, when Fernando Alonso was his partner for two years, Esteban looked quite confident against his backdrop. We are not saying that a driver should always win or always be on the podium, but nevertheless he performed very well. I think Fernando pushed him so hard that Ocon showed results he didn’t expect from himself. And now he also continues to work on himself.

Esteban drives for Alpine, is fully committed to the team, but at the same time maintains close ties with us, because we are still involved in his career. There are only twenty seats in Formula 1 and in a sense we are all working together for the benefit of our sport. When we talk about us, we maintain excellent relations with Alpine and also with other teams. And we always act together, trying to find the best solution for a specific driver and a specific team.

I knew George Russell from karting, and also witnessed his debut in the youth formulas. I remember this especially well because I had organized for him to participate in the Formula Renault Eurocup race. I think it was in 2014.”

Lagrue then advised his friend Simon Abadie, owner of the Tech 1 team, to bring Russell along: “It wasn’t difficult to convince him, and I think it benefited both the team and George. He got behind the wheel of her car and won. And now his home in Formula 1 is the Mercedes team. I hope he has many more successful years ahead of him…”

It is possible that Andrea Kimi Antonelli will become George Russell’s new partner at Mercedes in the future: “When we invest in someone, it is not because we will make some money later. We invest so that we have new superstars, so that our rider becomes the next world champion. That’s why we worked with George and I hope we can achieve this with some of our young drivers.

Of course, it is not always possible to predict how everything will turn out. You make decisions depending on the specific moment, on your plans, and there is always a chance that it will be the wrong decision. Sometimes you have to stop working with some racer, and after a few years it turns out that he has become an excellent professional. But you always have to set priorities. That is why we focus all our attention on working with a specific group of drivers, because here too there are only twenty seats in Formula 1.”