Mercedes has no doubts about Antonelli's potential and talent.

      In the first half of his debut season in Formula 1, Kimi Antonelli distinguished himself several times, most notably in Australia, where he finished fourth, and in Canada, where he reached the podium. But in mid-summer there was a certain dip in results. The 18-year-old Mercedes driver failed to score points in three consecutive rounds and only returned to the top ten in Hungary.

      Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, whose seat in the team was taken by the young Italian, has repeatedly said that he fully supports the choice, and this does not surprise Bradley Lord, Mercedes' head of communications.

      "This is entirely in keeping with Lewis's character as we have known him for many years," Bradley is quoted by RacingNews365 as saying. "Kimi joined the team at the end of last season, and Lewis then helped him with advice, offered support and encouragement, although towards the end of that season he himself experienced some fairly serious difficulties at times.

      Young drivers entering Formula 1 can consider Hamilton a great ally. Probably no one understands as well what it means when very high expectations are placed on a top-team debutant, since he was in that situation in 2007.

      Kimi has highly appreciated his support, as have the other young drivers who also feel it. Over the course of a debut season there can be successes and failures; it is entirely dedicated to gaining experience, and that process involves pleasant discoveries and surprises, but there are more difficult moments.

      "Of course, as you would expect, when it becomes harder to drive, drivers lack confidence through the corners, and this explains the dip in results. The likelihood of being knocked out in the early stages of qualifying becomes higher than at the start of the season.

      "The key point is that we acknowledge: the car's performance leaves something to be desired, so we have no doubts about Kimi, except that he currently lacks experience…

      "The essence of our approach is to support him, to encourage him to try to learn from the positive aspects of the experience-building process and not to be too fixated on results. Then he needs to devote maximum attention to restoring his confidence.

      "This happens through communication with the engineers, through understanding exactly what we are doing with the car and how to act to fully unlock its potential. We try to provide Kimi with a car that will allow him to demonstrate his talent — that is a priority for us. And that he has talent, we know for sure.…

      "We made the decision to sign Kimi completely consciously, and our task is to help him flourish, to create the necessary conditions for that.

      "Of course, if we can provide him with a more predictable car, the process will be easier, but in this respect we underperformed in the second quarter of the season. But we hope that we will be able to find a more effective direction for further progress."