Toto Wolff has acknowledged that putting Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes for his rookie System 1 season means any errors made by {the teenager} will probably be “extra seen” than they had been for George Russell when the latter entered the game with Williams.
Antonelli made his F1 weekend debut within the opening observe session on the Italian Grand Prix, the place – regardless of impressing together with his preliminary laps – his time behind the wheel rapidly got here to an finish when he crashed into the obstacles after simply 10 minutes of working.
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The error didn’t forestall the Silver Arrows from confirming at some point later that the teenager will companion Russell on the squad in 2025, with each drivers having progressed via the ranks as a part of Mercedes’ Junior Programme.
Reflecting on the likenesses between Antonelli and Russell’s journeys to the F1 staff, Wolff commented: “I believe a lot of the credit score must go to Gwen [Lagrue], who manages our academy, and his staff, as a result of they’re capable of scout from the very early age onwards.
“We as Mercedes wouldn’t have discovered Kimi – he was 11 years outdated, we noticed the outcomes on monitor and clearly working with the kart groups. It’s wonderful to see, as with George, [who] truly discovered us, put his finest go well with on and went to see me in my workplace with a PowerPoint presentation.