Ralf Schumacher: Why Kimi Antonelli is number 1 at Mercedes ahead of Russell

Kimi Antonelli, now 20 years old, has extended his lead in the Drivers’ Championship at the Dutch Grand Prix: the Italian has 242 points, whilst his Mercedes team-mate George Russell has 183 points – the same as Ferrari star Lewis Hamilton. In fourth place is Lando Norris (159), winner at the Hungaroring and Zandvoort.

On the Sky podcast ‘Backstage Boxengasse’, six-time Grand Prix winner Ralf Schumacher spoke about the positions of Antonelli and Russell. The 51-year-old German notes: “Admittedly, Kimi Antonelli has only won once in the last six Grands Prix, but it’s also worth emphasising that, out of twelve starts, Kimi Antonelli has finished on the podium ten times.”

Ralf Schumacher

Foto: XPB

“In the two races where he didn’t manage that, there were technical problems. So Antonelli’s record is certainly very impressive. The only risk I see is whether he can maintain this level, but even that didn’t seem to be a problem this weekend in the Netherlands.”

Schumacher, who finished fourth in the World Championship in 2001 and 2002, praises him: “Kimi usually delivers a spot-on performance, does a solid job and makes almost no mistakes. From that perspective, he’s quite clearly the better driver in the team, and he’ll only get better. At 20, he’s still a long way from reaching his full potential, especially when you consider how little experience he has compared to others.”

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“That’s why, in my view, he’s quite clearly the number one at Mercedes. And I believe Russell has understood that. I think the Englishman would be well advised to accept the situation, take things race by race and try to drive as strongly as possible. Of course, his aim must be to perform better than Kimi, but I reckon he needs to take it a notch down in terms of how he deals with the situation mentally.”