Formula 1 World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli: Why he isn’t giving himself top marks

Kimi Antonelli is thrilling GP observers and fans alike with his impressive performances. The Mercedes driver, who is just 19 years old, has won five of this year’s nine GPs so far, whilst finishing on the podium in two further races. As a result, he leads the World Championship standings ahead of the tenth round in Belgium.

Former GP driver and current ServusTV pundit Christian Klien says of the speedy curly-haired driver from the Mercedes team: “I can’t recall him making a single real mistake this year. When things don’t go his way, it’s actually always down to the car.” Antonelli himself is more critical of his own performance.

When asked by ServusTV commentator Andreas Gröbl whether he’d give himself ten out of ten for his performances so far this year, the driver from Bologna said: “No, I wouldn’t give myself a ten, and that’s for several reasons. First and foremost, there was the third free practice session in Australia. That didn’t go well and we nearly missed out on qualifying because of it. We couldn’t get the car set up properly and all that, so my performance there had a negative impact on the rest of the weekend.”

“Then there was the race in Japan, which I did win, but I had a really poor start. We extended the stint and I was also lucky with the safety car,” Antonelli continued, listing his mistakes. “And finally, there was the sprint race in Miami, where I went off the track too often, qualifying in Barcelona and also the final practice session at Spielberg. So there were a few things that didn’t go well. That’s why I’m giving myself eight and a half out of ten.”

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17.07.2026 - 13:15