George Russell defends Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli decision in face of scepticism

George Russell has defended Mercedes’ decision to promote Andrea Kimi Antonelli for F1 2025 by suggesting a driver either has the speed or does not, regardless of their age.

The recently turned 18-year-old Antonelli will be the third-youngest F1 driver in history when he takes to the track in Australia next year, having been confirmed as Lewis Hamilton’s F1 2025 replacement by Mercedes on Saturday.

George Russell backs Andrea Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes success

But despite his inexperience, his future team-mate Russell believes age is just a number.

Antonelli enters the world of F1 with an incredibly inexperienced background in terms of the usual path into the sport.

The 2024 season has seen him compete in F2 for the first time and the young Italian skipped F3 as part of his dramatic rise up the ranks.

Keen to stress that he has won everywhere he has competed, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff backed Antonelli to hit the ground running and Russell recalls a similar feeling about the first time he started racing.

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“When I look back to when I was 18 years old there’s obviously so much demand,” he told media including PlanetF1.com in Monza.

“But I think as a driver, you have the speed or you don’t have the speed and I’m very confident Kimi has the speed.

“I think everybody on their journey is going to make mistakes. That’s part of life and part of this sport.

“No doubt Kimi is going to learn from yesterday [his crash during FP1], but he’s definitely got the speed to help Mercedes get back to the front of a grid for the next year onwards and that’s exactly why he’s going to be in the car alongside me next year.”

Russell went on to suggest that in terms of raw pace, he is no quicker now than he was 17.

“I’ve always believed that you gain a lot over time with experience in terms of how to deal with a race weekend, the tyres, the team, but I don’t believe I’m any faster today on broad pace than I was when I was 17 years old,” the now 26-year-old said.

“And I think you’ve either got the speed or you don’t have the speed and Kimi absolutely has the speed.

“He’s proven that in all of his categories, there will be mistakes on the way, as there were for for all of us, I think every single driver on the grid in Formula 1 in the first couple of seasons made very visual mistakes, and that’s going to be obviously highlighted more for any driver who’s at the front of the field.

“But Kimi, he’s exceptionally fast. No doubt he’s going to be really keeping me on my toes next year and I’m really looking forward to a new challenge.

“Three years working with Lewis has been exceptional, but [I am] really looking forward to seeing what we can do together from next year onwards.”

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