Andrea Kimi Antonelli will celebrate his 18th birthday in less than three weeks, but the young Mercedes protégé has long been regarded as one of the most promising drivers of his generation, with a rapid transition to Formula 1 predicted for him.
Mercedes Chief Engineer Andrew Shovlin explained why last year’s European Formula Regional champion is so good: “The most important thing is his speed. He came through the junior series very quickly, although he recently did some karting, and now he’s racing in F2 and working with our team on testing behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car.
For such a young driver he has a very impressive list of achievements and there is no doubt that he has a great future ahead of him. He seems to be one of those naturally gifted racers that everyone is trying to find.”
With the team’s affairs now clearly on the up, Shovlin was asked whether Mercedes intends to offer George Russell’s team-mate’s seat to a more experienced professional.
“To be honest, the level of our performance has no influence on that,” he replied. “We want to have the two best drivers and we need to create the best car – the team plans to focus on this. I believe that if we manage to cope with these tasks, everything will be fine. But it is absolutely clear that our position in the championship has no influence on whether we choose a young driver or an experienced professional.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
