Marko expects huge pressure for Antonelli at Mercedes
Ahead of the 2025 F1 season, Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko reckoned that there will be huge pressure on Andrea Kimi Antonelli 's shoulders as the Italian is set to make his F1 debut with Mercedes.
Mercedes announced on the eve of last year's Italian Grand Prix that their F2 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli will replace Lewis Hamilton, who had confirmed his departure from the team back in last February.
The Bologna-born driver, who competed in Formula 2 last season, has completed several test outings with Mercedes since the Brackley-based outfit announced his promotion. He first carried out running with the 2021 F1 Mercedes at the Red Bull Ring before racking up mileage with the 2022 F1 Mercedes in Imola and in Silverstone.
Antonelli then went on to gain experience at Spa in August before completing his first running on a race weekend. The 18-year-old took over George Russell's car in the opening practice session at the Italian Grand Prix, but a mistake on his second flying lap saw him crash into the barriers at the Parabolica corner.
He then travelled to Mexico, where he drove Lewis Hamilton's car in FP1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where he admittedly took a calmer approach to avoid any mistake.
The Mercedes junior has recently completed another test run, that time at Jerez, racking up laps in the 2021 F1 Mercedes last Wednesday in nice weather conditions.
Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko has compared Kimi Antonelli’s rapid rise to Max Verstappen’s early career. The Austrian reckoned that there will be more pressure on the Bologna-born driver as he starts his F1 career in a top team while Verstappen made his F1 debut in a midfield outfit.
“Antonelli is a risk, but we also took that risk with Verstappen in the past. Max was very young when he got into that car. But in his case, he wasn’t in a top team so he had less pressure.”
