Andrea Kimi Antonelli has confirmed to be “a superb match” into Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton’s substitute based on trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, who believes there’s much more to return from the rookie.
Mercedes opted to advertise 18-year-old Antonelli after only one season of Method 2 following Hamilton’s change to Ferrari, marking the primary time it has run a rookie driver since returning to the game in 2010. Off the again of two top-six outcomes to begin his F1 profession, Antonelli has impressed Mercedes and Shovlin says the group has been having fun with serving to him ship on his potential.
“He’s a superb match within the group,” stated Shovlin (pictured above with Antonelli). “It’s tough to return in after a driver who’s been as profitable as Lewis has. And for Kimi, it’s nonetheless actually early days in his F1 profession. Now fortunately, he’s obtained an especially skilled race engineer with Bono [Peter Bonnington] who’s serving to him work out the way to method the weekends and the way you construct your pace and the way you’re employed on the automotive setup.
“Everybody within the group’s fairly excited to be working with him and he’s simply having fun with it. I believe in Melbourne, he couldn’t fairly consider he was truly beginning an F1 race. Having your first race being a moist one, properly, that’s significantly difficult. However he’s settling into it and I believe there’s much more to return from Kimi.”
Antonelli’s encouraging begin has mirrored that of Mercedes, with George Russell scoring two podiums within the opening two rounds, and Shovlin says the early indicators are promising for the group.
“We’ve proven that we’ve obtained a automotive that works properly over a variety of circuits,” he stated. “What we’ve additionally seen, although, is that McLaren are in all probability the group to beat. Max [Verstappen] is fairly fast. Ferrari definitely don’t seem like they’re far behind and so they’ve had a little bit of unhealthy luck. So it’s a fairly tight combat on the entrance.
“We’re working onerous to attempt to convey improvement to the automotive as a result of, as I stated, we expect that we have to shut that hole to McLaren particularly. However we’ve obtained three very thrilling circuits. Suzuka, that’s a implausible observe — very flowing, very quick. A variety of drivers have that as their favourite on the calendar. First time for Kimi, although and that’s fairly a tall order for such a younger driver to be going there on their third race. However he’s excited to drive [there].
“Then on to Bahrain. We all know Bahrain as a result of we’ve been testing there. It has its personal challenges, however hopefully we’ll be a minimum of within the combat for podiums. After which Saudi Arabia. That’s a avenue observe, fairly clean, once more, a comparatively new tarmac and that throws up its personal challenges.
“So, three very completely different circuits. And by the point we’ve performed 5, we’ll in all probability get some concept as to the actual order. However as I stated, it’s simply thrilling to begin a season with a automotive that’s working properly, that the drivers are having fun with driving. It’s far more predictable and we’re trying ahead to the rest.”
