Mercedes set for MAJOR Kimi Antonelli F1 setback

Mercedes might not quite be at their pre-2021 levels, but it's hard to recall the team being in such a positive position since Max Verstappen usurped Lewis Hamilton as F1's king.

Toto Wolff's team dominated the sport with drivers' and constructors' titles wins exclusively between 2014 and 2020, but since 2021 have only been able to dine out on the occasional false dawns of a grand prix victory.

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One of those came last time out at the Canadian Grand Prix where George Russell took an easy triumph from pole position and Kimi Antonelli bagged his first ever top-three finish to ensure a double podium for the Silver Arrows that leaves them second in the championship on 199 points, 16 clear of rivals Ferrari.

Forget McLaren who are 175 points down the road, Mercedes would have had doubts over this campaign having lost seven-time world champion Hamilton to Ferrari and placing all hope in an Italian teenager with no grand prix experience to replace him.

As the narrative has gone though, Antonelli is a generational talent. Set for the very top and an F1 superstar in the making. Wolff and Mercedes have the best idea of how good he actually is and believe he has what it takes to succeed now in F1.

There was much celebration in Montreal after the 18-year-old bagged his first podium as the hypetrain on the likeable Italian speedster continues to grow. Indeed he is the third youngest podium finisher in F1 history.

But does his real talent deserve this curious hype? Across his first 10 races assessments have been nothing but outstanding praise and it feels like you can't get through any analysis of his season so far without a dash of 'unbelievable' here or an 'incredible' there.

Dig into the actual performances though and it's hard to see anything beyond a 'solid job well done' so far - and that's if I'm being kind. Across ten grands prix and two sprints, he still hasn't beaten George Russell in a single race. Not one. Zilch. He's got less than half of Russell's 136 points in the championship.

Ok, I get it. He's already achieved a lot more than I have and he's only just left school. At the same age, I was up in arms with a PlayStation controller crashing into every Monaco barrier I could find (UPDATE: No change, even years on).

How good is Kimi Antonelli?

But the real generational talents that have broken through in say the last 20 years like Hamilton and Verstappen were on it from the very start. Look at the way Hamilton hustled world champion Fernando Alonso from literally the first corner of his grand prix career - this is the levels drivers worthy of the 'wonderkid' tag need to be reaching.

George Russell is a very good driver, there is certainly a world champion in the British star. But he also isn't peak Alonso and yet has Antonelli firmly under wraps right now and beating him literally every time.

This isn't an anti-Kimi agenda. I really like him and I certainly don't think he is underperforming at all of what we can expect from a driver as young as he is. I'm just not seeing anything that screams next F1 superstar right now. Even the unfairly maligned Lance Stroll managed to pick up a podium inside his first 10 races as a teenager.

Sooner or later, these gratuitous platitudes need to be backed up by results. For the record, I wouldn't be surprised if it happens as early as the second half of this season. Right now though Antonelli has done the bare minimum and that's it.

Fancy buzzwords need to be translated into astonishing performances for such a highly rated driver and right now there is no sign of this. If Mercedes think they really do have the next big thing in F1 then a major stone cold reality check could be about to hit them if things don't change. Time to step it up Kimi - prove me wrong!

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