Daniel Ricciardo on F1 World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli: “That’s a superpower”

Kimi Antonelli has secured nine Grand Prix victories and six further podium finishes this year. As a result, the young star driver has amassed so many World Championship points that he travelled to Mexico City with a comfortable lead of 123 World Championship points.

The 20-year-old from Bologna need only finish ninth in the 19th Grand Prix of the season to be crowned the youngest champion in Formula 1 history. It’s a strong starting position for the curly-haired driver, who is only in his second GP season.

Daniel Ricciardo, who himself has battled for victories and podium finishes in Formula 1 for years, is well aware of this. The Australian was recently a guest on the ‘Beyond the Grid’ podcast and also spoke about the young title contender from the Mercedes works team.

Ricciardo explained: “A friend asked me about Kimi Antonelli the other day and I said: ‘His inexperience is a superpower.’ What I actually mean by that is being young – I certainly don’t mean to offend him in any way. Being young is a superpower when you don’t know that much yet and haven’t seen that much of the world either.”

Kimi Antonelli: Unburdened by the past on his way to the world title

“I remember my first year at Red Bull Racing; you’re naive, you’re young, you’re inexperienced. I don’t know, everything’s easy and just falls into place, and you just think to yourself: ‘Oh wow, I’m winning, cool, I’ll just keep winning because I’m the best.’ I don’t want to compare myself to him now, but the strength that comes with being young is simply an advantage in certain situations where sport and the world can be very intense,” says the 37-year-old.

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“Over the years, you simply accumulate baggage. At the moment, however, he’s in that ideal phase where he clearly has a great deal of talent and speed, but hasn’t yet accumulated any baggage. He thinks to himself: ‘Let’s just get on with it.’ There’s nothing major going on yet, and that’s a superpower,” Ricciardo is certain.

Reflecting on his own career, the eight-time Grand Prix winner admits: “For me, that became increasingly difficult over the years. Even the decision to leave Red Bull Racing in 2018… Naturally, you question these things, and as the years go by you think: ‘I haven’t really been successful yet, or perhaps not in the way I’d imagined.’ These thoughts keep cropping up.”