Günther Steiner on Kimi Antonelli: “Everything is just falling into his lap at the moment”

With two more consecutive victories at Monza and Madrid, Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli is well on his way to his first world championship title. His compatriot and TV pundit Günther Steiner already sees him as the champion. Speaking on the ‘Red Flags’ podcast about Antonelli’s potential world title, Steiner said: ‘It’s a done deal.’ And the Italian added: ‘He’s doing a brilliant job and deserves to win the world championship.’

Antonelli takes risks, but not foolish ones

Steiner, who was Formula 1 team principal at Haas for many years and is now co-owner of the MotoGP team Tech3 as well as a TV pundit for RTL, said: “He’s confident with the lead he has.” That lead now stands at 81 points over George Russell and 101 over Lewis Hamilton. “He takes risks, but not stupid ones. That move on the first lap – he didn’t need to do that; he didn’t need to take that risk. It was unnecessary. He’d still get points in second place.”

He is referring to the incidents at the start of the race in Madrid: immediately after the Spanish Grand Prix got underway, Kimi Antonelli was locked in a close battle with Lando Norris in the McLaren, who had started from pole position. Antonelli eventually swerved out of the way, cut the second corner and took the lead. He then let Norris back past to avoid a penalty. Things got really tight again in the next series of corners; at Turn 5, he forced Norris off the track – same thing all over again! It was an aggressive approach from Antonelli, who ended up rumbling off the track twice as a result. Antonelli was then third, before moving back up to second after Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) had to let Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) through, allowing Antonelli to slip past as well. So that just about went okay in the end.

Antonelli’s got all the luck in the world right now

Steiner: “He’s got all the luck in the world right now. Everything’s just falling into his lap. Even with the VSC. Who was the lucky one? Him!” Kimi Antonelli benefited from a Virtual Safety Car on lap 15. The Italian had cleverly slowed down so that he would be at the pit lane entrance just in time for the foreseeable VSC. This meant the tyre change took him less time. Lando Norris, who was leading the race at that point, had already passed the entrance when the VSC phase began; he was unable to change his tyres quickly enough and fell back. So the Virtual Safety Car helped Antonelli to victory.

Steiner notes, however: “As soon as it starts to bite him, he’ll say to himself, ‘Wow.’ And things will change.” In other words, when Antonelli eventually stops having all the luck in the world and things start to go against him. “And he might then say to himself: ‘It’s not as easy as it looks. I’m good, but I’ve also had a lot of luck.’” At the moment, though, everything is just falling into place for the young Italian.

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