I don't get it. They are citing his performance in F2. I haven't seen anything special from him in F2 yet, yes he's won a couple of races but with someone like Drugovich without a seat, Schumacher who is essentially Toto's best friend and Kimi binning it on his first effort... I can't help but think this kid is very overrated.
Probably got him cheap and are hoping to build a franchise with him, or sell him off in a few years at a profit.
There is a reason why Schumacher isn't getting a seat and it is that teams believe they have seen his ceiling of potential.
With Kimi they assume that he has a high potential even if he isn't there yet. Now, you could assume the same about Drugovich – in his case there must be something else why he is considered uninteresting
Considering how Toto reacted when Vowles said such about Schumacher he should put his money where his mouth is
I guess the Toto Verstappen wild goose chase is finally over.
Can't blame Toto for trying!
I mean he's... good?
Aside from maybe Hadjar, Bortoleto who's a bit Maldonado-esque, Gabriele Mini, and obvs Lawson - I'm not seeing any "chosen one" talents coming through. There's nothing wrong with Antonelli as a choice at all, just all seems a bit meh.
If they were going to roll the dice, I'd have put Doriane Pin in that seat. She is rapid AF.
Putting Pin into an F1 car would have been irresponsible. At least Antonelli did a season of F2 this year. Pin is struggling in FRECA, she needs to improve to F3 or F2.
I'd love to see her get a shot in F2. It's a bummer Formula W is so far distant in terms of power from the "main" Formula feeders
I can't speak to her performance in FRECA, I've not watched it - but her recent races in the F1 Acad have been more than decent. She's super consistent with whatever she's given, even if it's got a lot less power in the back than F1.
F2 or F3 would do her a world of good in terms of being marketable to F1 teams though, I can't argue with that - but I can't see Antonelli's oodles of experience either, like Bottas or others before him who have been thrown in at the deep end.
I would absolutely love to see Pin or Abbi Pulling rag an F1 car about for a session and see what times they put in.
The key moments played out from Lesmo 2 on his final lap, where Antonelli swooped through at a pretty impressive speed.
His minimum speed through there was 184km/h – which is 7km/h faster than Max Verstappen managed on the fastest lap of the session.
Things are even more impressive through the Ascari Chicane, as Antonelli went through there at 190km/h – with Verstappen only managing 176km/h on his fastest lap.
Other front runners were a similar margin behind Antonelli on their fastest laps at the end of the session – Lewis Hamilton’s minimum speed was 177km/h, Charles Leclerc was 178km/h and Lando Norris 179km/h.
And he walked back to the pits at 5km/hr.
Nothing breaking about this. Toto confirmed this days ago.
Weeks.
Probably thinking they can turn him into a long term driver. If he is as highly touted as most experts think they can lock him down a la RB with Verstappen. If he is a bust they are a massive team who can attract top talent regardless.
He's bloody quick. Just needs to take care of the car and learn other racecraft.
