Kimi Antonelli backed to surpass Sebastian Vettel's four F1 titles by Guenther Steiner
Former Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner believes Kimi Antonelli will go on to have a more successful F1 career than four-time champion Sebastian Vettel. Antonelli is on the verge of winning his maiden F1 championship, and will be crowned at this weekend's Mexican Grand Prix if he finishes in the top nine. At 20, he would break Vettel's record as F1's youngest champion, set in ...…
In a surprising twist at the Texas Grand Prix, 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli extended his world championship lead after Mercedes' surprise win, defying early predictions from the engineering team. The team's trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, admitted that the sudden turnaround was a "remarkable miracle" as they went from struggling on Friday to claiming victory on Sunday.
The team's post-race analysis revealed that the recent aerodynamic upgrades had turned the W17 into a challenging machine, with a narrow set-up window that proved difficult to hit.
Russell's post-race comments about the car being "rubbish" played a significant role in the team's perspective, leading to a difficult afternoon for him as he got stuck behind Oscar Piastri's McLaren. However, Antonelli's pitwall executed flawlessly under immense pressure, trusting their calculations despite the unpredictable tyre degradation on the Texas track.
The flawless strategy decisions and solid pit stops ultimately resulted in Antonelli's crucial late-season victory, with Shovlin crediting his teenage driver for the impressive performance.
Written by urgent.news from Motorsport.com's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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