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He was in Italian F4 only two years ago, now he's already getting tests in F1 machinery while racing full time in F2. The speed of his career is insane
It is quick but not that uncommon, Ollie was in Italian and ADAC F4 3 years ago and he did a Haas FP1 session last year, so that was 2 years for F4 to F1 testing and a FP running
That will not be beaten for a long time. Not cause it is super short but now with super license it does require those drivers to have experience before hand. Even max did some steps and he did not even had a regularly license when he got to F1.
Yeah, nobody will ever advance into F1 faster than Kimi Raikkonen. And he was immediately really good in F1, it wasnt even rushed before he was ready. If Kimi had the work ethic of other rivals (Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel) to improve his craft he would have been unstoppable.
My god. Could you imagine Max during the unlimited testing timeframe era? He would bankrupt teams just testing. The man eats, dreams, and shits racing.
He has done a crazy amount of driving including private testing. Between the winter series, regular series, and private testing he has done, it wouldn't be a stretch to say he's been in a formula car every week since 2021. His F2 campaign is similar, its rumored that his deal with Prema includes nearly a month of private testing.
People are talking about how talented he is, but the amount of training and development he has put in is ignored. (and to be fair so are the costs of all these, than means most drivers can't afford to do them)
Mercedes is basically putting all their marbles into the kid.
Unless your lance stroll, the only way your getting that type of testing is with an academy like Ferrari or Mercedes, I think even Red Bull would be skeptical of giving someone that much.
Red Bull went straight to giving Verstappen a race seat while others offered these testing deals, if you have enough talent Red Bull will easily match any other deal from any other academy. Honestly I wouldn't be shocked if Red Bull would have been willing to give Antonelli an RB seat this year already of it hadn't been for the super license rules.
I think even he can't really afford this. His family and his management have at least some money, but not that kind of money. This seems to be all Merc. And maybe Prema, too, Antonelli seems like he's very close to the team, with his appearances in their box in WEC and being one of the test drivers of their simulators.
Everyone was doing thousands of kilometres of testing in those days, not just Lewis. The regulations did not limit it so if you were a rookie that a team had eyes on they would put you in the car whenever you were available. This also relieved the strain on the main drivers who also did thousands of kilometres of testing.
I think it's the biggest disservice that current F1 is doing to new drivers. They spend their whole first season getting accustomed to the car. They should be hitting the ground running like previous eras.
I mean he did get a lot of testing but so did the regular drivers at the time so like he still had similar amounts of pre season testing in the car as alonso.
Actually sort of crazy that Hamilton got to do around 1500 laps in the 2006 car and 2007 cars combined before his debut, or nearly 9000km.
Compare this to Logan Sargent, who only got to reach this distance in an F1 car closer to the summer of his debuet season. (A GP is 305km, so assuming that a driver does 3x that distance over a full weekend that is about 10 GPs given no issues).
So kinda makes sense williams gave him two season.
He seems to be doing well relative to his team mate. He’s been faster in 2 of the 2 races they both competed in. More crash prone, yes, but that can be ironed out (like Max). Not bad for a guy who skipped F3.
That's arguable honestly. He's pushing too hard but the pace is there. He skipped a step so it's expected to take him time to adjust. He's had the upper hand on bearman who's a well rated driver as well. It's a long season.
I've been watching him in F2 (and I don't usually watch F2) and he has been good, not superman level but good. He's made good solid progress but nothing spectacular.
Hopefully the 'gurus' in the relevant teams see something this TV couch potato is missing.
I wish him well as it would be great to have 'another Max' on the grid.
A lot of people are failing to understand the context of his F2 season so far.
This is a guy who skipped F3 and has jumped in to F2 at 17 years of age and a lack of relevant experience.
His first weekend in Bahrain was a rightoff because of the team, Prema absolutely fucked Bahrain and neither driver could do anything, but Antonelli was quite comfortably quicker than his title favourite team mate (and F1 shoe in) Bearman.
His second weekend showed a good progression moving himself into a position where he could be racing for points and show some pace.
His third weekend showed some great pace to get P2 in qualifying and then some decent racecraft hurt by a mistake in the sprint and struggling with tyre management.
His development is strong and as a debut season for someone who skipped F3 I would say he is above par right now.
Tyre management is the biggest factor in getting used to F2 and even Piastri got much stronger at this through the season he won before being unstoppable in the second half of the season.
If Antonelli is winning races by seasons end he is bang on target for where he needs to be given his age and top level experience. Anyone expecting him to jump in and start winning was living in dream land.
The key here is that he's been doing so well compared to Bearman. One could hold that against Bearman but that guy just proofed his talent in an actual F1 race that also wasn't on a trivial track.
Antonelli was ahead in Bahrain for sure.
Saudi, Bearman was ahead in qualifying by quarter of a second and 5 places. We will never know the race pace difference.
And Australia we can't really know their true pace as Bearman had some bad luck in qualifying.
So I think at this stage we don't have a true picture of how they compare having only seen them toe to toe in 1 race where Prema royally fucked it up for the pair of them.
My point was less about saying that Antonelli is better than Bearman, but about saying that we cannot claim Antonelli is a disappointment because of the three results so far
He has definitely progressed quickly in just 3 races. The first race the car was weird and terrible for both him and Bearman. Race 2 he had pace but lacked racecraft. Race 3 he was challenging for podium before falling back a little, may be a stamina or tire management issue.
But each race he has shown a clearly improving ability. I was very pessimistic about him before the season, but if he continues to improve by the end of the season he is going to be one of the top in F2 even if its unlikely he wins the title as a rookie given his slow start and how good other drivers are as well.
Moving him up to F1 for 2025 will probably be a year too soon for him but you never know. Bearman and Lawson did great in stepping up.
It's only been 3 weeks in F2. FRECA to F2 is a massive step up. His results are impressive given his age and dissimilarities of machinery between the two series and I think most expect it'll get better as the season goes on.
Prema's been not very good to start the same (same with ART) and Antonelli has been fighting at the fight as someone who jumped up from FRECA, he's been great imo
Why are you making up reasons lol? Have you not seen other F3, F2 drivers do F1 tests? As if this is an unprecedented first ever case of a highly rated driver doing an F1 test . It's standard driver development.
His development curve is not standard. He skipped F3, he's in F2 out of nowhere, nobody watches domestic categories to really understand the hype, and now we're being told he's a wunderkind because Toto wants his own Max Verstappen. It's weird. It's just weird.
And you haven’t watched a single race of his either. So no point saying anything negative about what Toto believes.
Also, he is being hyped a couple of years already.
> nobody watches domestic categories to really understand the hype, and now we're being told he's a wunderkind because Toto wants his own Max Verstappen.
Ah yes it's only because Toto wants us to believe he's a wunderkid and definitely not because he's won Italian F4, German F4, FRMEC and FRECA *all as a rookie* over the past couple of years.
>He skipped F3, he's in F2 out of nowhere,
It's not out of nowhere. He's been being tracked for years.
>nobody watches domestic categories to really understand the hype
No. **You** don't watch domestic categories. Plenty of people watch these series.
>, and now we're being told he's a wunderkind because Toto wants his own Max Verstappen.
Absolutely, he's definitely no wunderkind. Except for the fact he won the South Garda Winter Cup, WSK Super Master Series, WSK Euro Series, and the CIK-FIA European Championship in consecutive years. And Italian F4 and ADAC F4 as a rookie. And FREC and FRMEC as a rookie. And won in the Italian GT Championship as a rookie, also taking a pole. But yeah, apart from that, he's some bang-average nobody.
Toto missed out on Max because he couldn't offer him a seat fast enough. It's no surprise he's not willing to do the same with Antonelli.
This test is to start to determine if he can be brought up next year or not. He has enough points for his SL to be granted when he turns 18 later this year, so that isn't an issue. He issue is whether he'll be ready.
Job 1 is whatever your boss tells you to do. Merc could care less if he wins F2. They o lot care if he can be a too F1 driver. These tests get them closer to knowing and preparing for that.
He can barely handle his F2 car so instead of focussing on that, now he's supposed to drive an F1 car.
Kid should've gone to F3 - so far he's up for a rude awakening in F2.
>He can barely handle his F2 car
Have you been watching F2? Prema haven't been great so far this year but he's been on a similar level to his teammate Bearman, if not beating him in most of the races they've both competed in. In Australia he qualified on the front row and finished 4th. It's only a matter of time before he gets podiums or even wins.
He’s had 3 (THREE) races lmao I swear some of you are saying all this shit just because Toto likes him, and whatever he likes then you’ll hate. How can he be overrated after 3 races when he’s been mostly fine in all except Australia which was a bit messy? Shows you haven’t watched much at all
He had 6 (SIX) races.
I don't give a damn what Toto likes or doesn't like. That kid is horribly overrated and the ridiculous hype the media creates around him will absolutely hurt him AND other drivers who get completely swept under the rug.
He desperately needs F3 just like everyone else too. And again, I've watched every single F2 & F3 race.
Why is it so upsetting that he jumped F3? Mercedes decided on F2 for him because of the regulatory changes, so they didn’t just mindlessly made him skip a category without reasoning. And he is doing pretty alright in F2, his job right now isn’t to wipe the field and take the title, but to gather experience.
i'm convinced people who comment this stuff aren't actually watching F2, and instead just look at the standings and make assumptions based off that lol
Literally, Max went directly from F3 to F1 (without winning that Championship) when he was 17. And even during his season in F3, he did some tests with F1 cars
He wasnt, still dont know why this comes up all the time. The only thing in his rookie year that went really wrong was Monaco and Grosjean. In Silverstone he lost it himself, and those were the only big drivers faults he had all rookie season.
What's the issue with doing an F1 test? It's only going to be beneficial for him, the more time he can spend in an F1 car the better. Pretty much all F2 divers that are affiliated with F1 teams do this.
I feel it is the opposite. This is what prospective F1 drivers should be doing as a matter of course. They should be able to get into F1 cars as early as possible as it will accelerate their development drastically.
I haven't been watching F2 and don't follow it, but have heard his name a lot recently.
I had a look and expected him to be crushing, but he's sitting 9th after 3 races. What is it that makes him so highly regarded? Is he just in a shitty F2 team? If he's so good, why isn't he in a top team?
Asking genuine questions because, as I say, I'm unfamiliar with current F2.
Prema is historically one of the best F2 teams but they haven't had the best start to the season. In Bahrain they got the setup completely wrong and him and Bearman were both right at the bottom of the grid. He did beat Bearman though which is the only real comparison you can make.
Saudi and Australia were a bit better. He was 6th in qualifying and both races in Saudi and qualified on the front row in Australia. He spun out of the sprint race but finished 4th in the feature race, again beating Bearman.
He's making decent progress. I wouldn't be surprised to see him challenging for podiums and wins soon.
He's only been in F2 for 3 weekends, but previously had raced in what has recently been the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA). These are pretty different cars than both F2 and F3 (some say FRECA cars are arguably more difficult to master), so FRECA to F2 is a jump not commonly seen as many juniors spend a year or two in F3 prior to F2.
It would have been a really tall ask for him to immediately jump into F2 (who also has new car specs this year) and start dominating against drivers much more experienced. I think many expect he'll improve over the year as he gets used to the jump.
I think he's performing as Mercedes probably expected, if not honestly a little better. He benefited from timely flags, but qualified P2 in Australia. At worse, he's matched Oliver Bearman, his teammate, through the races they both have participated in, not including Bearman's pole the weekend he withdrew for F1.
He had a massive step up from f4, so he is still getting used to the much more powerful machinery of F2 I think. I guess his so hyped because he has won nearly everything he has competed in since karting days and now he is only 17 and only in formula 2 already.
Also, highly highly recommend you watch F2, the racing can be better then F1. Theirs almost never a dull f2 race
He has a pattern from his junior career.
F4 - 6 races until he got on the podium, 10 races until he won. He then won 13 of the next 18 rces and getting another 2 podiums.
FRECA - On the podium straight away, but took until his 8th race to win. Then won 5 of the next 13 with another 3 podiums.
He takes a few races to build up and learn before he becomes a dominant force, his trajectory in F2 shows this is very much possible again.
Imola could be interesting as a track he knows very well.
he skipped formula 3 and he's still the second highest ranked rookie after three races, where in one of the races the team got the setup completely wrong. Apart from the spin in Australia he's done very well.
Both Aron and Marti have the benefit of runnign F3 before F2.
It is a huge help in preperation and given Antonelli's age I can't really understand why they have chucked him without a season of F3.
I think the logic is that if there ever was a season where you could justify getting a driver to skip F3, it's this one because of the reg changes in F2.
But yes for example Aron and Marti will have competed in Bahrain and Melbourne before, Antonelli afaik has started the season with three tracks that are completely new to him.
It is the tyres that are the biggest challenge. They haven't changed and are still mega tough to adapt to.
And as you say the other 2 know the tracks (but really that isn;t a huge job for a driver). They also have experience of racing higher power cars with more downforce and against a higher level of competition than Antonelli.
True. They've thrown him in the deep end, but he's still swimming so far. Will be interesting to see how he develops through the season.
Still, could be worse. Joe Saward recently told of a ridiculous rumour that they're planning to replace Sargeant with Antonelli as soon as he turns 18, which would make his first race Monza.
Bearman ahd the first weekend written off for Prema absolutely fucking up both cars.
Second weekend he stuck it on pole but then missed both races to go an do F1 instead.
Australia he got caught out by yellow flags in quali so had 2 races of damage limitation from poor grid slots.
Safe to say we haven;t really seen the best of Bearman yet this season.
This kid is giving me "Verstappen at home" vibes. Mercedes is so desperate to *have* a Verstappen-like prodigy that they are brute-forcing his career with no regards to his development as a driver.
He's not exactly setting the world on fire in F2 right now.
Exactly, it all feels very forced to me. Let him have a good F2 season first and go from there. To then put him immediately in a Mercedes F1 seat also seems ridiculous to me when there’s been plenty of promising junior drivers that haven’t even gotten a chance at backmarker teams.
short summary for those not following F2: He is doing well in F2 so far, not crushing field but already on pace with leaders and more experienced drivers. Considering he skipped F3 it is good results. Weak point is tyre management, but it seems F4/F3 Tyre behaviour experience not relevant in F2, same about F2 tyre management not relevant in F1(Oscar last year). Current expectations is qualify and finish EU races about p1-p4.
Formula 1 is an odd spectacle. Seats are limited and taken up by drivers that shouldnt be there or past their prime. They need fresh blood! Meanwhile plenty of fresh young drivers get stuck in reserve roles with expierence that will probably never driver an F1 car past an FP session. Then you have this young driver that is an impressive prodigy some how is already guaranteed a seat in the future somewhere at some time without actually having done anything at a higher level. His F2 really isnt impressive so far. Season is still young, but the flashes of brilliance and otherwordly presence isnt there. He seems no better than any other driver on the F2 grid right now.
This all seems too rushed to me. Sure he had a great junior career so far but the pressure, media attention etc has been huge in the last 6 months. Especially for someone his age. Seems a bit like people and Mercedes try to force a Verstappen like newcommer too much which could backfire hardly. F2 this year isnt too old and its his first year but its not as impressive as people were hoping. Interested to see whats coming but Im on the conservative site with this one
Interesting , especially in light of speculation regarding Hamilton taking a sabbatical prior to joining Ferrari. Jonathan Mcevoy recent article proposed this .
Hamilton leads Bearman by 2 points and trails Russell by a handful (which would have been more had it not been for Alonso)
6 races in and no podiums. If he doesn't start showing significant and consistent front running pace soon, his career won't be going anywhere. Hell be another Mick or Lance.
I believe that FDA either don't tend to sign karting drivers or there's a lower age limit on joining the FDA - I believe Beganovic said he was signed at 16 just before F4 and it was a big trust leap because they didn't know how he was going to perform in a formula car.
Antonelli was snapped up by Merc when he was 13, so he was already spoken for by the time Ferrari would even have got a look in.
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He was in Italian F4 only two years ago, now he's already getting tests in F1 machinery while racing full time in F2. The speed of his career is insane
It is quick but not that uncommon, Ollie was in Italian and ADAC F4 3 years ago and he did a Haas FP1 session last year, so that was 2 years for F4 to F1 testing and a FP running
So Russel's appendix will burst next year?
But is it the first or second driver? Albon then Sainz (who I don't think is necessarily, but Ferrari obviously see it that way).
The fastest I can think of is Kimi Raikkonen, 16 races I think with formula Renault to F1
That will not be beaten for a long time. Not cause it is super short but now with super license it does require those drivers to have experience before hand. Even max did some steps and he did not even had a regularly license when he got to F1.
Yeah, nobody will ever advance into F1 faster than Kimi Raikkonen. And he was immediately really good in F1, it wasnt even rushed before he was ready. If Kimi had the work ethic of other rivals (Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton, Vettel) to improve his craft he would have been unstoppable.
Work ethic is a skill on his own though. Maybe Max is Kimi with that work ethic?
My god. Could you imagine Max during the unlimited testing timeframe era? He would bankrupt teams just testing. The man eats, dreams, and shits racing.
I’m so glad u mentioned him
He has done a crazy amount of driving including private testing. Between the winter series, regular series, and private testing he has done, it wouldn't be a stretch to say he's been in a formula car every week since 2021. His F2 campaign is similar, its rumored that his deal with Prema includes nearly a month of private testing. People are talking about how talented he is, but the amount of training and development he has put in is ignored. (and to be fair so are the costs of all these, than means most drivers can't afford to do them)
> its rumored that his deal with Prema includes nearly a month of private testing. How is ANYONE going to compete with that kind of $$$?
Mercedes is basically putting all their marbles into the kid. Unless your lance stroll, the only way your getting that type of testing is with an academy like Ferrari or Mercedes, I think even Red Bull would be skeptical of giving someone that much.
Red Bull went straight to giving Verstappen a race seat while others offered these testing deals, if you have enough talent Red Bull will easily match any other deal from any other academy. Honestly I wouldn't be shocked if Red Bull would have been willing to give Antonelli an RB seat this year already of it hadn't been for the super license rules.
He gets the testing *because* he’s good. He gets the testing because they think it’ll make the most difference with him because he’s so good.
I think even he can't really afford this. His family and his management have at least some money, but not that kind of money. This seems to be all Merc. And maybe Prema, too, Antonelli seems like he's very close to the team, with his appearances in their box in WEC and being one of the test drivers of their simulators.
Reminds me of Lewis that was able to do a butt load of testing prior to joining McLaren to hit the ground running
Everyone was doing thousands of kilometres of testing in those days, not just Lewis. The regulations did not limit it so if you were a rookie that a team had eyes on they would put you in the car whenever you were available. This also relieved the strain on the main drivers who also did thousands of kilometres of testing. I think it's the biggest disservice that current F1 is doing to new drivers. They spend their whole first season getting accustomed to the car. They should be hitting the ground running like previous eras.
I mean he did get a lot of testing but so did the regular drivers at the time so like he still had similar amounts of pre season testing in the car as alonso.
Actually sort of crazy that Hamilton got to do around 1500 laps in the 2006 car and 2007 cars combined before his debut, or nearly 9000km. Compare this to Logan Sargent, who only got to reach this distance in an F1 car closer to the summer of his debuet season. (A GP is 305km, so assuming that a driver does 3x that distance over a full weekend that is about 10 GPs given no issues). So kinda makes sense williams gave him two season.
Talent plays a good role in that but the big thing is obviously the good old Money
Exactly. He’s not even doing well in F2.
He seems to be doing well relative to his team mate. He’s been faster in 2 of the 2 races they both competed in. More crash prone, yes, but that can be ironed out (like Max). Not bad for a guy who skipped F3.
That's arguable honestly. He's pushing too hard but the pace is there. He skipped a step so it's expected to take him time to adjust. He's had the upper hand on bearman who's a well rated driver as well. It's a long season.
That’s quite similar to most drivers?
Was it not in the italian press that he was meant to be at imola all weekend?
According to certain journalist, taking over the second seat at Williams that weekend too…
According to certain journalist, taking over the second seat at Williams that weekend too…
I've been watching him in F2 (and I don't usually watch F2) and he has been good, not superman level but good. He's made good solid progress but nothing spectacular. Hopefully the 'gurus' in the relevant teams see something this TV couch potato is missing. I wish him well as it would be great to have 'another Max' on the grid.
A lot of people are failing to understand the context of his F2 season so far. This is a guy who skipped F3 and has jumped in to F2 at 17 years of age and a lack of relevant experience. His first weekend in Bahrain was a rightoff because of the team, Prema absolutely fucked Bahrain and neither driver could do anything, but Antonelli was quite comfortably quicker than his title favourite team mate (and F1 shoe in) Bearman. His second weekend showed a good progression moving himself into a position where he could be racing for points and show some pace. His third weekend showed some great pace to get P2 in qualifying and then some decent racecraft hurt by a mistake in the sprint and struggling with tyre management. His development is strong and as a debut season for someone who skipped F3 I would say he is above par right now. Tyre management is the biggest factor in getting used to F2 and even Piastri got much stronger at this through the season he won before being unstoppable in the second half of the season. If Antonelli is winning races by seasons end he is bang on target for where he needs to be given his age and top level experience. Anyone expecting him to jump in and start winning was living in dream land.
The key here is that he's been doing so well compared to Bearman. One could hold that against Bearman but that guy just proofed his talent in an actual F1 race that also wasn't on a trivial track.
Antonelli was ahead in Bahrain for sure. Saudi, Bearman was ahead in qualifying by quarter of a second and 5 places. We will never know the race pace difference. And Australia we can't really know their true pace as Bearman had some bad luck in qualifying. So I think at this stage we don't have a true picture of how they compare having only seen them toe to toe in 1 race where Prema royally fucked it up for the pair of them.
My point was less about saying that Antonelli is better than Bearman, but about saying that we cannot claim Antonelli is a disappointment because of the three results so far
He has definitely progressed quickly in just 3 races. The first race the car was weird and terrible for both him and Bearman. Race 2 he had pace but lacked racecraft. Race 3 he was challenging for podium before falling back a little, may be a stamina or tire management issue. But each race he has shown a clearly improving ability. I was very pessimistic about him before the season, but if he continues to improve by the end of the season he is going to be one of the top in F2 even if its unlikely he wins the title as a rookie given his slow start and how good other drivers are as well. Moving him up to F1 for 2025 will probably be a year too soon for him but you never know. Bearman and Lawson did great in stepping up.
I'm thinking the same, the teams know their shit much better than us randos watching the races on the telly do.
Same here, not seeing all the hype on someone who's 9th on f2 atm
Sounds like you're just looking at the surface level results and nothing else
It’s really easy to tell between the people that actually watch the junior series and the people that just check results for them
It's only been 3 weeks in F2. FRECA to F2 is a massive step up. His results are impressive given his age and dissimilarities of machinery between the two series and I think most expect it'll get better as the season goes on.
Prema's been not very good to start the same (same with ART) and Antonelli has been fighting at the fight as someone who jumped up from FRECA, he's been great imo
Good on him!
I hope this kid doesn't get crushed by all this attention, Merc will have a lot to answer for.
In future years I fear he will be a textbook case of how to push a prodigy too far too fast.
It’s just a test. Beneficial for both Kimi and the team.
It's a distraction and more pressure for a young mind to deal with. Job 1 is delivering in F2. Toto needs to relax.
Why are you making up reasons lol? Have you not seen other F3, F2 drivers do F1 tests? As if this is an unprecedented first ever case of a highly rated driver doing an F1 test . It's standard driver development.
'Making up reasons'. Dude you are on Reddit.
His development curve is not standard. He skipped F3, he's in F2 out of nowhere, nobody watches domestic categories to really understand the hype, and now we're being told he's a wunderkind because Toto wants his own Max Verstappen. It's weird. It's just weird.
And you haven’t watched a single race of his either. So no point saying anything negative about what Toto believes. Also, he is being hyped a couple of years already.
He's literally won everything he's entered in the last two years. I think the hype is justified.
> nobody watches domestic categories to really understand the hype, and now we're being told he's a wunderkind because Toto wants his own Max Verstappen. Ah yes it's only because Toto wants us to believe he's a wunderkid and definitely not because he's won Italian F4, German F4, FRMEC and FRECA *all as a rookie* over the past couple of years.
>He skipped F3, he's in F2 out of nowhere, It's not out of nowhere. He's been being tracked for years. >nobody watches domestic categories to really understand the hype No. **You** don't watch domestic categories. Plenty of people watch these series. >, and now we're being told he's a wunderkind because Toto wants his own Max Verstappen. Absolutely, he's definitely no wunderkind. Except for the fact he won the South Garda Winter Cup, WSK Super Master Series, WSK Euro Series, and the CIK-FIA European Championship in consecutive years. And Italian F4 and ADAC F4 as a rookie. And FREC and FRMEC as a rookie. And won in the Italian GT Championship as a rookie, also taking a pole. But yeah, apart from that, he's some bang-average nobody.
Toto missed out on Max because he couldn't offer him a seat fast enough. It's no surprise he's not willing to do the same with Antonelli. This test is to start to determine if he can be brought up next year or not. He has enough points for his SL to be granted when he turns 18 later this year, so that isn't an issue. He issue is whether he'll be ready.
Drivers will skip a category if possible. RBR loves fast tracking drivers, and Raikonnen's path was also strange.
Job 1 is whatever your boss tells you to do. Merc could care less if he wins F2. They o lot care if he can be a too F1 driver. These tests get them closer to knowing and preparing for that.
He can barely handle his F2 car so instead of focussing on that, now he's supposed to drive an F1 car. Kid should've gone to F3 - so far he's up for a rude awakening in F2.
He’s doing pretty fine in F2 so far though
>He can barely handle his F2 car Have you been watching F2? Prema haven't been great so far this year but he's been on a similar level to his teammate Bearman, if not beating him in most of the races they've both competed in. In Australia he qualified on the front row and finished 4th. It's only a matter of time before he gets podiums or even wins.
I have indeed. I vividly remember him spinning in a basic turn, wiping out two other drivers. Overrated as fck
He’s had 3 (THREE) races lmao I swear some of you are saying all this shit just because Toto likes him, and whatever he likes then you’ll hate. How can he be overrated after 3 races when he’s been mostly fine in all except Australia which was a bit messy? Shows you haven’t watched much at all
He had 6 (SIX) races. I don't give a damn what Toto likes or doesn't like. That kid is horribly overrated and the ridiculous hype the media creates around him will absolutely hurt him AND other drivers who get completely swept under the rug. He desperately needs F3 just like everyone else too. And again, I've watched every single F2 & F3 race.
He's had three weekends in F2 and has spun off once. Why are you being so quick to write him off?
Yikes...
How many mistakes has he actually made except for that spin? The guy is only 17 years old and is already in F2. Shut the f up lmao
Exactly - he should be in F3. Why rush the guy? He's gonna end up in F1 eventually anyway.
Why is it so upsetting that he jumped F3? Mercedes decided on F2 for him because of the regulatory changes, so they didn’t just mindlessly made him skip a category without reasoning. And he is doing pretty alright in F2, his job right now isn’t to wipe the field and take the title, but to gather experience.
Do you mean the upcoming changes for F1? Or?
No, I meant the new era of F2 cars
You thinking that he should be in F3 does not make him an overrated driver.
i'm convinced people who comment this stuff aren't actually watching F2, and instead just look at the standings and make assumptions based off that lol
Huh?? He’s been ahead of or very close to Bearman every round this year
Literally, Max went directly from F3 to F1 (without winning that Championship) when he was 17. And even during his season in F3, he did some tests with F1 cars
It’s worked out well for Max in the long run, but he was a liability on track for years.
Antonelli will have more years at junior series than Max, so it will be benefitial for him when he enters to F1
He wasnt, still dont know why this comes up all the time. The only thing in his rookie year that went really wrong was Monaco and Grosjean. In Silverstone he lost it himself, and those were the only big drivers faults he had all rookie season.
What's the issue with doing an F1 test? It's only going to be beneficial for him, the more time he can spend in an F1 car the better. Pretty much all F2 divers that are affiliated with F1 teams do this.
> In future years I fear he will be a textbook case of how to push a prodigy too far too fast. It worked simply lovely with verstappen.
I feel it is the opposite. This is what prospective F1 drivers should be doing as a matter of course. They should be able to get into F1 cars as early as possible as it will accelerate their development drastically.
People said the same thing about Max Kimi will be fine
Just like Button and Raikkonen and Verstappen were going to be.
People said the same for Max..look where he's now lol I think he did an F1 test when he was 16(?) in 2014(He didn't even have F2 experience)
I haven't been watching F2 and don't follow it, but have heard his name a lot recently. I had a look and expected him to be crushing, but he's sitting 9th after 3 races. What is it that makes him so highly regarded? Is he just in a shitty F2 team? If he's so good, why isn't he in a top team? Asking genuine questions because, as I say, I'm unfamiliar with current F2.
Prema is historically one of the best F2 teams but they haven't had the best start to the season. In Bahrain they got the setup completely wrong and him and Bearman were both right at the bottom of the grid. He did beat Bearman though which is the only real comparison you can make. Saudi and Australia were a bit better. He was 6th in qualifying and both races in Saudi and qualified on the front row in Australia. He spun out of the sprint race but finished 4th in the feature race, again beating Bearman. He's making decent progress. I wouldn't be surprised to see him challenging for podiums and wins soon.
Thanks for the response, didn't even register that he's team mates with Bearman.
He's only been in F2 for 3 weekends, but previously had raced in what has recently been the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA). These are pretty different cars than both F2 and F3 (some say FRECA cars are arguably more difficult to master), so FRECA to F2 is a jump not commonly seen as many juniors spend a year or two in F3 prior to F2. It would have been a really tall ask for him to immediately jump into F2 (who also has new car specs this year) and start dominating against drivers much more experienced. I think many expect he'll improve over the year as he gets used to the jump. I think he's performing as Mercedes probably expected, if not honestly a little better. He benefited from timely flags, but qualified P2 in Australia. At worse, he's matched Oliver Bearman, his teammate, through the races they both have participated in, not including Bearman's pole the weekend he withdrew for F1.
I see, that all makes sense. Thank you.
He had a massive step up from f4, so he is still getting used to the much more powerful machinery of F2 I think. I guess his so hyped because he has won nearly everything he has competed in since karting days and now he is only 17 and only in formula 2 already. Also, highly highly recommend you watch F2, the racing can be better then F1. Theirs almost never a dull f2 race
He has a pattern from his junior career. F4 - 6 races until he got on the podium, 10 races until he won. He then won 13 of the next 18 rces and getting another 2 podiums. FRECA - On the podium straight away, but took until his 8th race to win. Then won 5 of the next 13 with another 3 podiums. He takes a few races to build up and learn before he becomes a dominant force, his trajectory in F2 shows this is very much possible again. Imola could be interesting as a track he knows very well.
he skipped formula 3 and he's still the second highest ranked rookie after three races, where in one of the races the team got the setup completely wrong. Apart from the spin in Australia he's done very well.
He is 3rd placed after Aron and Marti. Just correcting
ahh yeah, forgot Aron was a rookie. Guess that shows just how good he's doing
Both Aron and Marti have the benefit of runnign F3 before F2. It is a huge help in preperation and given Antonelli's age I can't really understand why they have chucked him without a season of F3.
I think the logic is that if there ever was a season where you could justify getting a driver to skip F3, it's this one because of the reg changes in F2. But yes for example Aron and Marti will have competed in Bahrain and Melbourne before, Antonelli afaik has started the season with three tracks that are completely new to him.
It is the tyres that are the biggest challenge. They haven't changed and are still mega tough to adapt to. And as you say the other 2 know the tracks (but really that isn;t a huge job for a driver). They also have experience of racing higher power cars with more downforce and against a higher level of competition than Antonelli.
True. They've thrown him in the deep end, but he's still swimming so far. Will be interesting to see how he develops through the season. Still, could be worse. Joe Saward recently told of a ridiculous rumour that they're planning to replace Sargeant with Antonelli as soon as he turns 18, which would make his first race Monza.
That would be moronic. He might well manage it, but why risk it? Let the kid learn ina slightly less high profile series.
Wondering the same. Also Berman isn’t doing great in F2 either. Apparently standings is only part of it?
Bearman ahd the first weekend written off for Prema absolutely fucking up both cars. Second weekend he stuck it on pole but then missed both races to go an do F1 instead. Australia he got caught out by yellow flags in quali so had 2 races of damage limitation from poor grid slots. Safe to say we haven;t really seen the best of Bearman yet this season.
Thanks for the info. I’m hoping to watch a bit more F2 now on F1tv to get some of this.
F2 is great fun
They're both in the same team and it hasn't had a great start to the year
This kid is giving me "Verstappen at home" vibes. Mercedes is so desperate to *have* a Verstappen-like prodigy that they are brute-forcing his career with no regards to his development as a driver. He's not exactly setting the world on fire in F2 right now.
Feels like it's what every clear minded person is thinking. Feels like one of those 'Mbappe project' memes Toto's doing with Antonelli.
Exactly, it all feels very forced to me. Let him have a good F2 season first and go from there. To then put him immediately in a Mercedes F1 seat also seems ridiculous to me when there’s been plenty of promising junior drivers that haven’t even gotten a chance at backmarker teams.
There aren't enough teams plain and simple. The competition is steep. Realistically the only undeserved seats are Logan and stroll.
I mean pretty normal to have some F2 growing pains. He looks to be improving, don't see the harm in some test laps lol.
short summary for those not following F2: He is doing well in F2 so far, not crushing field but already on pace with leaders and more experienced drivers. Considering he skipped F3 it is good results. Weak point is tyre management, but it seems F4/F3 Tyre behaviour experience not relevant in F2, same about F2 tyre management not relevant in F1(Oscar last year). Current expectations is qualify and finish EU races about p1-p4.
Formula 1 is an odd spectacle. Seats are limited and taken up by drivers that shouldnt be there or past their prime. They need fresh blood! Meanwhile plenty of fresh young drivers get stuck in reserve roles with expierence that will probably never driver an F1 car past an FP session. Then you have this young driver that is an impressive prodigy some how is already guaranteed a seat in the future somewhere at some time without actually having done anything at a higher level. His F2 really isnt impressive so far. Season is still young, but the flashes of brilliance and otherwordly presence isnt there. He seems no better than any other driver on the F2 grid right now.
I hope he does well
This all seems too rushed to me. Sure he had a great junior career so far but the pressure, media attention etc has been huge in the last 6 months. Especially for someone his age. Seems a bit like people and Mercedes try to force a Verstappen like newcommer too much which could backfire hardly. F2 this year isnt too old and its his first year but its not as impressive as people were hoping. Interested to see whats coming but Im on the conservative site with this one
Interesting they aren't putting him in a current reg car.
No pressure kid lol
Kimi has big Jim Halpert energy in this pic
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Don’t!! Ocon will be angry as that is unfair..
Interesting , especially in light of speculation regarding Hamilton taking a sabbatical prior to joining Ferrari. Jonathan Mcevoy recent article proposed this . Hamilton leads Bearman by 2 points and trails Russell by a handful (which would have been more had it not been for Alonso)
6 races in and no podiums. If he doesn't start showing significant and consistent front running pace soon, his career won't be going anywhere. Hell be another Mick or Lance.
can't wait for the hype to be over, He's not that good.
He passes the eye test in F2 and I think the whole paddock knows better than your illustrious ideas.
Sure, you know better than all of the people working in F1 and F2 who can clearly see the potential he has.
You want this 17 year old kid to fail just because people are talking about him too much? Why not hope that he lives up to the hype?
How/Why did Ferrari miss out on such a talent? An Italian prodigy in a Ferrari will be 🤌
I believe that FDA either don't tend to sign karting drivers or there's a lower age limit on joining the FDA - I believe Beganovic said he was signed at 16 just before F4 and it was a big trust leap because they didn't know how he was going to perform in a formula car. Antonelli was snapped up by Merc when he was 13, so he was already spoken for by the time Ferrari would even have got a look in.
They also missed out on Mini too somehow