What Mercedes wants to see from Antonelli for F1 promotion

Mercedes has said the final call on junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli getting the nod for promotion to its Formula 1 team next year is about more than Formula 2 results.

Antonelli has thrust himself back into the spotlight after his first victories in F1’s feeder series, taking a maiden triumph in the rain-affected Silverstone sprint event before claiming a first feature race win in Hungary last weekend.

Antonelli’s uptick in results hasn’t gone unnoticed at Mercedes, and his Hungary performances in particular have gained praise from team boss Toto Wolff.

But instead of focusing just on results, what Wolff wants to see above all else from the promising Italian youngster is him continuing to make progress and learn from his errors so he is as well prepared as he can be.

“Kimi did a good job,” Wolff said. “That was a dominant win, two different tyre compounds, he was really strong and it was deserved.

“We have never doubted his pace and it is about really learning. He had such a fast development, but it is about learning tyre management and all these things. That’s why [his win] was a statement.”

Antonelli’s recent string of wins has come after a leaner spell as both he and Prema team-mate Oliver Bearman, who will be promoted to the Haas F1 team next year, struggled for performance with the Italian single-seater powerhouse.

Ahead of the Hungary weekend, Antonelli, who turns 18 next month, openly said he ‘doesn’t know if I will be ready’ next year if Mercedes decides to promote him to replace Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.

The Italian said: “I’m still learning a lot in F2. I definitely still make a lot of mistakes and the details that really matter, I’m still not doing everything right. I just want to be honest.”

But Wolff stressed that making mistakes and learning from them is exactly what F2 is for, with the capricious nature of the series and its competitive order making the results not clear-cut to judge driver talent.

Instead, Antonelli’s private testing programme with two-year old Mercedes F1 cars is where he can really convince the team he has the speed to make things happen, while he can keep honing his racecraft in F2.

“In a way we sometimes forget how stupid you were at 17,” Wolff said, when Antonelli’s comments were put to him. “I can tell you clearly my lack of maturity wouldn’t allow me to make clear decisions in such a highly competitive field.

“So,…