Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s speed in Formula 4 surprised Mercedes so much they decided to check he didn’t have an engine advantage.
Williams team principal James Vowles, who worked on Mercedes’ young driver during his time at the team, explained why Antonelli’s performance impressed them. He started his first full season in the Italian Formula 4 championship in 2022.“He was fantastic in karting, but you’re never quite sure how karting will translate into single-seater,” Vowles told the official Formula 1 channel. “But it was the first year of single seater where he didn’t just win, there was a gap of two-and-a-half tenths between him and anyone else.
“That doesn’t happen in Formula 4. Everyone put it down to ‘he’s done lots of testing’ [but] he didn’t: he did six days of testing.”
Vowles said he, along with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and young driver programme head Gwen Lagrue, decided to check Antonelli’s lead over his rivals was down to him and not his car.
“What we also had a question – and this was between Toto, myself and Gwen, we were having this conversation – do we have just a bias [because] we’ve got a good chassis and good engine?
“So at one point in the season, we took the engine out and put another engine in. We purposely swapped it around and still went on to win.
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“So at that point, if you’d asked me, I would have said that he’s very, very good. I’ve rarely seen that transition into it. And he continued that on through his junior career.”
“Mercedes did a very brave call, and the right call, which was to move him up all the way into F2 straight away and then to a very aggressive [F1] programme in the background,” said Vowles. “And I think without doubt, he probably suffered from the fact that it was a very fast acceleration into F1. So he had a year of playing catch-up.”
Following a difficult first season in F1, Antonelli has thrived this year and holds an 84-point lead over team mate George Russell at the top of the championship standings with seven rounds remaining.
Vowles admitted he was surprised by the progress Antonelli has made between his first two seasons in F1. “Well done to Toto and the team, [it was a] brave call. Absolutely came out trumps on top of it. Great belief.
“Because at times, if you read some of the headlines, everyone was questioning what they were doing. I knew underneath that he had a huge performance.
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“The step he’s made this year I think probably caught most people out. Maybe not the team, maybe they had more awareness of this, but for me I’m very impressed with the jump he’s made.
“Because it’s not just the pace that comes with it, there’s no mistakes that go with it either. Particularly [because] he’s in control of the situation.
“He carved his way from the back of the grid to the front at Monza. That’s a mature drive. It’s a hard drive to do. I think I looked at it on that one. I thought, how the hell’s he made eight positions up? Anyway, good on him.”
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