Danner: Antonelli's successes deserve high praise

      Kimi Antonelli's success in both qualifiers last weekend in Miami impressed many, including Christian Danner, a former racing driver who now collaborates as an expert with the Austrian edition of Motorsport Magazine.

      The track, laid around the Hard Rock Stadium complex, combines the features of a stationary race track and a street ring, in some places it is quite narrow and squeezed between bumps. Everything was further complicated by the fact that the program of the weekend in the American state of Florida included a sprint, and everyone had only one hour of training to get to know the track.

      Nevertheless, the 18-year-old Mercedes debutant, although he had never competed there, immediately won Friday's qualifying, which determined the starting order in the short Saturday race.

      "Antonelli did a great job! I have to admit, I was thrilled," Danner said. "After just one hour of training in Miami, he won the pole position in qualifying for the sprint."

      Everyone remembers that Kimi failed to hold this position, and Oscar Piastri took the lead at the first corner. And although he was again ahead of George Russell, his experienced team-mate, in the main qualifying of the weekend, showing 3rd place, Antonelli did not manage to keep up with the pace of the top five, let alone the leaders, in Sunday's Grand Prix.

      "He makes a lot of mistakes in the race, and his car often tries to skid,– Danner continued. "Besides, he still can't control the wear on the rubber as well as Russell does, but that's only because Kimi is still a beginner."

      When Antonelli made his Formula 1 debut, he was not much older than Max Verstappen – the Dutch driver started the Australian Grand Prix in 2015 at the wheel of a Toro Rosso car at the age of 17 years, 5 months and 15 days. And when he turned 18, he joined Red Bull Racing and immediately won the Spanish Grand Prix, becoming the youngest race winner in the history of Formula 1.

      According to Danner, Antonelli probably has to withstand more pressure than Max did at the time: "This is exactly what Helmut Marko expected from Verstappen at that time: he had to immediately fight for high results and show his team-mate, in this case Daniel Ricciardo: 'Watch out, I can do better than you.'

      Toto Wolff must now demand the same from Kimi, if he immediately gave him the opportunity to play for a top team, and before that created all the conditions to prepare for his debut. It is quite normal if Antonelli is not doing well yet, but the results that we see are really high and deserve the highest praise. At the end of the year, we'll see what progress he makes and to what extent he learns all the lessons."