Smedli: Antonelli is coping with the pressure in a top team.

      Rob Smedley, a former racing engineer who worked at Williams and Ferrari, highly appreciates the potential of 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli, who has opened his account for victories this season and is leading in the individual standings of the World Championship.

      "In the past, it was unimaginable for drivers to achieve such success at such a young age," Smedley reflected while participating in the High Performance podcast. "It was never like this before, and drivers back then had to train for much longer before they were allowed to drive Formula 1 cars.

      Although it has become easier to drive cars now, it is still not an easy task. Moreover, we must not forget that Kimi did not have the opportunity to quietly adapt to the atmosphere of the World Championship for a year, remaining unnoticed. He immediately landed in one of the top teams and found himself under immense pressure.

      It was tough, but he endured it all and is now already winning races. I agree that when he achieved his first victory, George Russell, his teammate at Mercedes, was a bit unlucky in qualifying. In any case, Kimi won the race in Shanghai. And I believe he is truly a very talented driver."

      "George is also very good, that's for sure, but it is quite obvious how good Kimi is in comparison," added Otmar Szafnauer, former head of teams such as Force India/Racing Point, Aston Martin, and Alpine, who also participated in the podcast. "And I also remember last year's race in Miami: Kimi had never seen this track before, but he won the qualifying for the sprint. That would be impossible if a person doesn't have talent.

      And I also remember that he crashed the Mercedes when he was first entrusted with conducting a practice session because he decided to attack right away. And Toto Wolff said something very funny at that time: 'You saw how high a speed he was trying to take that corner!'

      Although it was clear that Kimi was trying to take it too fast. But he is definitely very good! Kimi has become a worthy replacement for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. Toto Wolff and Gwen Lagrue, who is responsible for the youth program at Mercedes, did an excellent job preparing Antonelli for Formula 1."