Antonelli's F1 goal? Nothing short of achieving legend status: Here's why!

08:07, 20 Jul
Updated: 12:06, 20 Jul
0 Comments
There are big expectations for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the eighteen-year-old Mercedes driver. In a conversation with Corriere della Sera, the Italian rookie revealed that his own expectations are bigger than anybody else's.
Antonelli has so far only driven twelve races in Formula 1. The Italian scored his first podium at the Canadian Grand Prix. That race was won by George Russell, the lead Mercedes driver, whilst the Italian finished in P3, behind Max Verstappen.
However, things haven't always been so for Antonelli this year. Out of the last six races, he dropped out four times and finished in P18 once. In Spain, he retired due to an engine problem, but in Austria, the stewards found him at fault for an incident with Verstappen at Turn 3.

Antonelli has one goal: to become F1 World Champion

Antonelli is a rookie, but he also looks to the future. The Italian has an idea of what that future should look like: "I know that the last Italian F1 champion was Ascari. Will I be the next? That's the goal."
However, some things still need to improve, as the driver from Mercedes admits: "The first podium in Canada was fantastic. But to be honest, I was also a bit disappointed. We had the car to win and my teammate, George Russell, won the race. If I hadn't made a small mistake in qualifying..."
Antonelli will be interested in the situation ahead of next season at Mercedes. Something might change within the team.
It is known that the German racing team is interested in signing Verstappen. The driver from Red Bull Racing, though, prefers to stay with his current team, as reported by GPblog earlier, but this may change if performance does not improve with 2026 in mind. If this doesn't happen, the door at Mercedes could be opened.