{"id":32565,"date":"2025-04-09T08:25:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T12:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=32565"},"modified":"2025-04-09T08:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T12:25:28","slug":"how-valtteri-bottas-is-fast-tracking-antonellis-f1-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/09\/how-valtteri-bottas-is-fast-tracking-antonellis-f1-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"How Valtteri Bottas is fast-tracking Antonelli’s F1 progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimi Antonelli<\/a> can be credited with a very strong start to 2025, already performing at a comparable level to teammate George Russell.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old was only a few tenths behind Russell in qualifying, executing a very impressive stint on the medium tyres to help put himself just 1.3 seconds behind the #63 car at the chequered flag.<\/p>\n

For someone with such little experience, Antonelli deserves immense credit for adapting to F1 so quickly.<\/p>\n

Antonelli receiving direct support from Bottas<\/h2>\n

To some extent, much of the hype surrounding Kimi Antonelli at the beginning of 2024 quietened down as the year progressed.<\/p>\n

His Formula 2 campaign failed to capture the imagination of fans, finishing the season in 6th place.<\/p>\n

Some would say the 18-year-old was a victim of his own success, with a very solid rookie campaign (including two victories) generally overlooked due to his prolific junior career.<\/p>\n

Antonelli’s F2 campaign is especially impressive considering that he outperformed teammate Oliver Bearman<\/a> – who has proven his calibre on numerous occasions.<\/p>\n

In just a few weeks, however, the Italian driver has reminded the F1 world why he is one of the most highly anticipated youngsters in the sport’s history.<\/p>\n

\"\"
2025 Japanese Grand Prix, Friday – LAT Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aside from his work with Mercedes in pre-season testing, Antonelli has benefited from significant TPC (Testing of previous cars) running in recent years – getting thousands of kilometres of laps in F1 cars under his belt.<\/p>\n

The resources Toto Wolff’s team have invested into the youngster goes one step further, with reserve driver Valtteri Bottas also participating in his development:<\/p>\n

“I didn’t have a lot of confidence going into qualifying,”\u00a0<\/em>Antonelli said in Japan.<\/p>\n

“But we kept working hard at it.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Bono and George have been a great support, and Valtteri has been giving me plenty of advice.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Adapting to F1<\/h4>\n

Indeed, the 10-time race winner explained over winter<\/a> that working with Antonelli would be among his responsibilities in 2025.<\/p>\n

Alongside his development duties, Bottas outlined that helping the 18-year-old develop would fall under his umbrella this season.<\/p>\n

\"\"
2025 Chinese Grand Prix, Friday – Seb Kawka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Considering the complexities of understanding F1, from optimising tyre temperature in qualifying to looking after the tyres on race day, the Finn’s presence could be instrumental in accelerating Antonelli’s progress.<\/p>\n

Here are Bottas’ comments to Sky Sports about this topic earlier in 2025:<\/p>\n

“I think mentor is not too far off [his role].<\/em><\/p>\n

“When you’re a rookie, when you join the sport, there’s so many new things you’ve go to learn.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Yeah, I can definitely help with that – my job is to try and help the team as best I can.”<\/em><\/p>\n

A busy year for Bottas<\/h4>\n

Valtteri Bottas<\/a> intends to use his position as Mercedes reserve driver to hit two birds with one stone.<\/p>\n

On one hand, the 35-year-old’s year will consist of extensive simulator work and technical meetings with the engineering team at Brackley.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, he aims to leverage his position at Mercedes to be active in paddock conversations and negotiations ahead of 2026.<\/p>\n

Cadillac<\/a> are among the Finn’s most obvious targets for next year, as he looks to put himself back on the grid.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Bottas can be counted on to deliver for Toto Wolff’s squad in several areas over the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kimi Antonelli can be credited with a very strong start to 2025, already performing at a comparable level to teammate George Russell. The 18-year-old was only a few tenths behind Russell in qualifying, executing a very impressive stint on the medium tyres to help put himself just 1.3 seconds behind the #63 car at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":32530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2390,853,2452,121],"class_list":["post-32565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-antonelli","tag-bottas","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-mercedes"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32565"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32586,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32565\/revisions\/32586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}