Mercedes' main F2 goal for Antonelli was not to win the title
F1 News
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has gardnered Mercedes' faith across the seven years the Italian has been a member of their young drivers' programme and will make his F1 debut in 2025 as Lewis Hamilton's replacement. However, his F2 maiden season was anything but a walk in the park for the Italian youngster, but Mercedes driver development advisor, Gwen Lagrue, reveals what the German team's main goal for Antonelli actually was in the junior series.
Why did Mercedes decide to put him in F2 right away?
Following Antonelli's FRECA championship win in his debut season in the series, Lagrue argues F3 would not have been the right way to go. "When Kimi did perform that well in FRECA, I was not super convinced at that time that first going to F3 will develop him more,", Lagrue told Motorsport.com.
I wanted also to put himself In a situation where eventually he could face more challenges, and sending him to F2, of course, it required a bit of preparation."
Antonelli had to 'find a limit he'd never faced before'
"But it was also to put him into an environment where he had to find some personal limit he never faced before," Lagrue reveals, before stating Antonelli was yet to be the hunter in the categories he'd raced in until then. "He was always dominating, and he was always the one to beat, rather than the one chasing someone, even if we had some good competitors, like [Ferrari junior Rafael] Camara, for example, or a few others, he was on top of everything."
"So by doing that, we were making sure that first he will learn the new F2 with the idea of eventually doing another year of F2 if it was challenging, or depending on the situation in F1, make sure that at least we will accelerate his preparation to Formula 1. Of course, he was confirming what we were thinking series after series, let's say," concluding on Antonelli's ability to deliver on Mercedes' expectations year after year. Will it be the same in F1? The 2025 season holds the answer to that.
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