18/05/2024
NEWS STORY
Mercedes technical boss, James Allison admits to being impressed by Kimi Antonelli, citing his "metronomic pace".
A possible contender for a seat at Williams, or even Mercedes, next year, Toto Wolff is adamant that he doesn't want to rush the Italian youngster into an F1 seat.
However, his tests with Mercedes have impressed Allison.
"He's just a young, enthusiastic driver," said the Briton, "very, very fast and metronomic in his pace.
"He has not been in an F1 car until recently," he added, "but made it look like he'd been in one for ages within a lap or two.
"He came at this generation of cars, the ground effect cars, with an open mind," he said of the recent tests in an older car. "He feels all the same things that you'd expect him to feel, but he's not sort of polluted by the previous cars. So he just takes them as they are and tells us what he is feeling as weaknesses and strengths.
"He lets the engineers work to try to improve those things... he looks like a very promising young driver."
Indeed, the youngster has the endorsement of the seven-time world champion also, for asked if he would consider putting Antonelli in his car for next season, Lewis Hamilton replied: "Honestly, I have no idea what Toto's plans are, but I think, for me, taking on a youngster would be... if it was my job, if it was my role... I'd probably take on Kimi."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Imola here.