George Russell has defended his Mercedes teammate. The 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli has only scored one point on European soil, but the British driver emphasizes that people are focusing too much on the results.
Kimi Antonelli has shown remarkable things in his rookie season. With the sprint pole in Miami, the 18-year-old Italian became the youngest driver ever to achieve this, and he stood on the podium for the first time in Canada.
However, the Mercedes driver’s season also has significant setbacks, especially since the Formula 1 circus landed on the European continent. With retirements in Imola, Spain, Austria, and Great Britain, an eighteenth place in Monaco, and a sixteenth place in Belgium, Antonelli seems to be in a slump. He scored points in six of the fourteen races this season, while teammate George Russell finished outside the top ten only once. In Hungary, Antonelli did score one point, but that also marked his first score on European soil.
Progress
It is precisely in this difficult phase that Russell stands up for him. In a conversation with Motorsport.com, he emphasizes that people are focusing too much on the results and therefore overlook the fact that the rookie is making progress. “The fact is that his pace is no different for me,” says the Brit. “I think that’s what people don’t see. In Canada, I was on pole and he qualified fourth, but he was six-tenths behind me. In Belgium, he was out in Q1 and I made Q3, but he was only three-tenths behind.”
“People look at the underlying result, but the truth is that he is still making progress, even though we as a team have regressed,” Russell continues. “But suddenly you are now in the fight where a tenth can be six or seven starting positions, whereas previously, for the positions we were fighting for, a tenth plus or minus was one position.”
