Kimi Antonelli seems well on his way to his first world title after his victory in the Spanish Grand Prix. The Italian was joined on the podium by Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who finished second and third respectively. Those two drivers, the last two world champions in Formula 1, were asked after the race if they had any tips for the 20-year-old championship leader.
Verstappen kept the advice simple. “Kimi just has to keep doing what he’s doing now. It’s fantastic, he shouldn’t put too much pressure on himself, although I don’t think he does. He delivers, has a lot of confidence, and is gaining more and more experience. He’s still young and just at the start of his career. He doesn’t make things unnecessarily complicated and has good people around him. Everything just works well.”
Norris also agreed with the words of his Dutch rival. “Max said it well. He leads by 81 points, so he’s doing great. He beats his experienced teammate.
‘No advice’
Norris sees little reason to give Antonelli advice. “I actually don’t want to give him advice because he’s still so young and doing incredibly well. He will probably win the championship. He’s been impressive all year.”
Especially the way Antonelli presents himself on the track impresses the McLaren driver. “He doesn’t drive like this is only his second year in Formula 1. It’s nice to see. I don’t want to give him advice. There are many more years ahead in which we will compete against each other. That’s something for all of us to look forward to.”
Read more Racespecial GP Spain (45 pages): Antonelli is almost champion
Sober
The words of Verstappen and Norris align remarkably well with how Antonelli himself is handling his successful season. The Italian underlined his candidacy for the world title again with his eighth victory of the season on the brand-new street circuit in Madrid, but he does not want to dwell on it too much for now. “I want to keep pushing, race by race, maintain the lead and enjoy it all the time. I try to do my best every race and we’ll see where we stand at the end of the year,” he said immediately after the race.
That sober attitude also came through when Antonelli was asked at the press conference how mentally difficult it is to deal with such results and the pressure of a championship battle. Again, he mainly pointed to the people around him, including Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. “I’m lucky to have a lot of people around me. I have a great team supporting me and, of course, a very good family.”
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