Antonelli on weakness to 'benchmark' Russell: 'It's pushing the limit'

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, after a mesmerising debut in Australia, is currently experiencing more challenging times in China. With the Italian rookie qualifying P8 and his teammate, George Russell, taking P2 splitting both McLaren's, he knows where he has to make strides to get closer to Mercedes' team lead. Perhaps close enough to challenge him?

With this being Russell's fourth season at Mercedes, sixth overall in F1, it is clear the Briton is the benchmark for Antonelli at the German outfit. Where do the Italian's weaknesses lie compared to his teammate's strengths? "Well, I have a slight tendency to push the entries more compared to him," Antonelli stated after the Saturday afternoon qualifying session.

Antonelli needs to 'push the limit'

In short, the Mercedes rookie needs to figure out how to extract the best from the Pirelli F1 tyres. "What I need to improve is trusting that combined traction from the tyre, because I'm still too easy on the tyre on that side. It's really pushing the limit."

Said limit is where the magic happens. "I think also that comes a lot with the [tyre] warm-up, because when you have the tyres in the right window, you feel the grip is there and automatically you have more confidence to push it."

So, there's still work to do for the Italian rookie. "So definitely, I think most of it comes from warm-up, trying to get in the right window, and then obviously there's a few other things to work on," Antonelli concluded.