Kimi Antonelli may be the top rookie in F1 2025, but the Mercedes driver has lamented “too many zeroes” that have cost him in recent races.
Antonelli arrived on the Formula 1 grid billed as a once-in-a-generation talent, a title that his team boss Toto Wolff said he still had to earn.
Kimi Antonelli: Too many zeros
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
“He will only be a prodigy when he truly delivers in Formula 1,” the Austrian told Auto Motor und Sport at the beginning of the year. “We hope it happens sooner rather than later, but certainly not right at the beginning.”
Mercedes ensured that Antonelli would be able to get off to the best start possible as they put the Italian through an extensive TPC [Testing Previous Car] programme last year, in which he covered more than 9,000km in Mercedes’ F1 cars.
It appeared to have paid off as Antonelli brought his W16 home in fourth place on his debut at a wet Australian Grand Prix, a race in which six of his rivals crashed out. Fighting his way from 16th on the grid to fourth in the classification, Antonelli was only two seconds down on his team-mate George Russell.
He went on to score points in four of the next five races before a spate of point-less races in the next six were only interrupted by one top-ten result – a podium for third in Montreal.
But while Antonelli has four retirements in the six races leading up to the season’s midway point, only one was his fault as he crashed into Max Verstappen on the opening lap of the Austrian Grand Prix.
However, that has done little to quash the 18-year-old’s disappointment over his recent run.
Mercedes team-mates: F1 2025 head-to-head stats
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
“I’m not super happy, to be honest,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com.
“Too many zeros scored.
“I’ve been struggling to find some positives, to be honest, it feels like nothing is really working our way.
“I just need to focus and reset and try to find, again, the light at the end of the tunnel because, definitely, I’m not going through a nice moment.”
Assessing the first half of his rookie campaign as a whole, Antonelli says it has been a mix of highs and lows.
“It went by so quick, and I think I’ve had quite a big highs and some lows as well. I think I’m decently happy, not super happy, because I think on my side, I did a bit too many mistakes,” he said.
“And I think my approach in especially starting this season, was not the best.
“But overall, I think nowadays, F1 is super tight. Look at qualifying, the gaps are super close, and that explains, and really tells you how much you have to be on it.
“You have to be on top of the game and looking at every detail, because as soon as you start a bit off, you’re immediately on the back foot and then to recover is quite difficult.
“And I think, we had some really good moments, and as I said, some bad ones.”
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer says he expected more from the 18-year-old given Antonelli’s prolific rise into Formula 1.
Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Palmer said: “I think we all maybe hoped for a little bit more from this outstanding talent, but he’s not been poor and he’s shown glimpses of real talent. I think that’s the main thing.”
The Briton, though, accepts that Antonelli is up against a strong benchmark in Russell, saying: “You’re up against a guy that could be a champion in the right car, who’s just come off the back of beating Lewis Hamilton.
“So it’s not going to be an easy benchmark, and I think he’s just over three-tenths away on qualy pace at the moment.”
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