Former Components 1 race engineer Rob Smedley has branded Kimi Antonelli as a “generational expertise”.
The Italian driver, who’s at the moment in his second season of F1, leads the championship with a 43-point lead over his Mercedes team-mate George Russell after the primary 5 rounds.
Talking on the Excessive Efficiency Racing podcast alongside broadcaster Jake Humphrey and former Alpine and Aston Martin workforce principal Otmar Szafnauer, Smedley praised the 19-year-old driver’s automobile management.
“I used to be watching him, and I walked all the way down to Turns 1, 2 and three after which afterward I walked all the way down to the final chicane earlier than the hairpin, the place they go below the bridge, and I used to be watching him down there,” he stated.
“He is excellent. He is excellent for somebody who’s achieved 1.3 seasons of Components 1 or no matter he is at now. Seeing that makes you realise he is superb. You possibly can see how a lot he is obtained the automobile on the restrict.
“It’s extremely quick if you watch it, however you may see like the place he brakes, how he is obtained the automobile on the restrict, the way in which that the automobile strikes, how exact he’s, how constant he’s in that precision of line, continually doing the identical factor.”
The previous engineer added, evaluating Antonelli to Russell: “He is very, superb for anyone who has so little expertise within the automobile. So fast-forward to what you’ve got simply stated, to now it is a man with six years of expertise of Components 1 when he is at his peak and I believe that we’ve a generational expertise. I actually do suppose he is that good.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photograph by: Clive Mason / Getty Pictures
When requested if he had thought that previous to the beginning of the 2026 season, Smedley added: “Sure. I believed it when he was within the junior method.”
Antonelli changed Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes after the seven-time champion determined to maneuver to Ferrari at first of 2025. In his first season with the Brackley outfit, Antonelli completed seventh within the drivers’ championship and celebrated on the rostrum thrice, together with his finest end second place on the Brazilian Grand Prix.
However with a 12 months of F1 expertise below his belt and Mercedes popping out robust within the new laws, Antonelli claimed his first grand prix win on the Chinese language Grand Prix and hasn’t stopped accumulating trophies since. Along with his win on the Canadian Grand Prix, he turned the primary driver to take his first 4 grand prix victories consecutively.
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