Antonelli a threat to Russell? "If he uses his abilities well, he can be"

It's not just the galaxy Red Bull that Helmut Marko likes to follow and comment on. After recently taking stock of the situation in the Austrian between the promotion of Liam Lawson preferred to Yuki tsunoda or that of Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls, the advisor of the red bull extended his analyses further into the paddock, and more precisely on the side of Mercedes.

Like the 2025 grid, the German team is also renewing itself between the departure of Lewis Hamilton and the arrival of the very young Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Inevitably, the Italian hope will be closely scrutinized as Toto wolff took a big risk in bringing him up after only three seasons of car in the legs (F4 in 2022, FRECA in 2023 and F2 in 2024). Some agree that this is a bold bet on the part of the Star both because of his age (18 years, 6 months and 22 days on March 16th during the Australian Grand Prix) and because of the lack of experience of the kid from Bologna.

« It's a risk, concedes Helmut Marko, to the German Media Sport, seeing some similarities with a certain… Max Verstappen. But we've also taken that risk with Max in the past. He was also very young when he was promoted. (17 years old in 2015). However, in his case, he was not in a top team, so he had less pressure. »

A pressure that the Transalpine will be able to resist? Marko does not doubt the talent of the young Antonelli and is even convinced that he could offer a good opposition to his new garage neighbor, provided that he applies himself to perfection. We saw it in Monza (that he was fast), he continues. Although I don't understand why they put it in the car (during EL1). He was very fast on his first three laps but on the fourth he ended up in the wall. If he uses his abilities well, which he already has, he can be a threat to Russell.. » Or how to put pressure on his rivals, clever Helmut.

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