Will Antonelli replicate Hamilton's debut season? 'That's my goal'
12:00, 14 Oct 2024
4 Comments
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has set the bar high for himself. The Italian will make his Formula 1 debut in 2025 when he will race for Mercedes alongside George Russell. However, the 18-year-old is not settling for simply starting races and doing well. He expects race wins.
Antonelli will be replacing Lewis Hamilton. In 2007, Hamilton made his debut for McLaren and was able to compete for race wins and podiums straight away. In fact, Hamilton finished on the podium in his first nine races (including two wins) during his debut season. Antonelli hopes to do something similar when he joins the front-running Mercedes.
Antonelli aims to win during debut season in F1
At the Festival dello Sport, organised by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Antonelli said he feels he is ready for Formula 1: "In terms of speed, I believe that won’t be an issue. The only thing that will require a lot of work is understanding how to manage the race weekend in the best way possible and learning all the procedures. So, there will be a lot to learn, but I feel ready."
Antonelli also has a goal for his first season: "Certainly, winning a few races would be a dream. It won’t be easy because all the teams have competitive cars, so it will be very difficult, but this is my first goal. Even a few podiums would be good, but the main goal is to bring home some victories."
This article has been created in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut
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I don't think it is fair to compare HAM to ANT regarding their debut seasons. Two totally different eras.
Back then teams/drivers could test outside of FP.
It has been reported back then that HAM made several tests (over 1000 laps) in the 2006 MCL before he entered F1 in 2007. Why ANT also had the possibility to do so, it was way less laps.
Also back then, a driver just needed to be fast. Today, tires and fuel management play an important role. Certainly as important as raw speed. That's the reason why rookies need more time before they eventually start to perform constantly well.
Same is also valid for other Rockies in our days. Unless they have a very bad teammate, it is going to be more difficult to constantly perform at a level rookies did back in the day.
It has been almost 20 years since a rookie is given the opportunity to drive a very competitive car. The last time that happened was Hamilton and that is why he holds so many 'rookie records' as other highly talented rookies spend their first season in a back marker and uncompetitive team.
However, the moment they get into a good car, (eg. Max or Charles or George) or the moment their car becomes competitive (like Oscar), they are able to win races and beat their more established team mates.
Hopefully the Mercedes will be competitive next year, then points, podiums and even a win or two should be possible for Kimi to achieve.
Has any rookies ever managed to get a pole position or win their very first F1 race? ... Hmm... That would be really an achievement if Antonelli can achieve that!
That's some standard to reach, well we will see.
Can't see it happening, but he will definitely beat Ham's record for most points in a debut season because the points system is much different now