Patrese pushes Antonelli: “He can challenge Russell”

The rookie season 2025, the season which represented Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s debut in Formula 1, brought ups and downs for the young promise from Bologna, strongly desired by Toto Wolff to replace Lewis Hamilton after the latter’s move to Ferrari: after the pole position achieved in Miami in the Sprint qualifying, the 19-year-old stood on the podium for the first time in Canada, only to then begin a period consisting of a crisis of results, such as to even call into question his permanence in Mercedes. Question marks that disappeared towards the end of the championship, with excellent performances and two more podiums, this time in Brazil and Las Vegas. Fight between teammates? Now, in the shakedown in Barcelona, ​​Mercedes proved to be the most impressive team among those that lapped on the Montmelò circuit, to the point of being indicated as the favorite to win the 2026 world title. An opinion that was also shared by a former driver like Riccardo Patrese, who added further considerations on his compatriot. For the Paduan, in an interview with https://www.betvictor.com/en-gb/casino, Antonelli could seriously challenge his teammate George Russell, thus aiming to win the title: “Antonelli demonstrated his value towards the end of the season. He started to behave as expected and sometimes puts Russell in difficulty. He has to learn and concentrate on everything. In his first season in F1 he had to learn a lot by adapting to many situations, and now he should know everything. Last year I said we had to leave him alone and not criticize him. This year, if he has a car to win the championship, which could happen, and he has a very good teammate like Russell, he can have no excuses. He has to get on this train and try to fight for the championship. He can beat Russell, or there could be a close fight between them. Now he has to be on the same level as Russell, because maybe he can make a mistake, Russell can make a mistake, or the car can break down there are greater chances that the cars could break with these new engines. So for Antonelli this is an important season because he must be really ready to provide continuity.”