Verstappen Shares His Advice For Kimi Antonelli Who Might Potentially Replace Hamilton

Thursday, 23 May 2024 at 16:39

The triple World Champion shared some advice from his experience for Mercedes's Junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli ahead of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen is and will most probably remain the record holder for being the driver who participated in an F1 Grand Prix weekend at the youngest age.

The Flying Dutchman was only 17 years and 165 days old when he raced his first weekend for Toto Rosso- the team we now know as RB.

Just a year later, he was promoted to Red Bull and won his first F1 Grand Prix race. Mercedes currently has a driver named Andrea Kimi Antonelli, in whom they see immense potential.

Antonelli is also only 17 at the moment, and it is expected that we might see him in F1 next year driving for Mercedes. The triple World Champion shared some valuable advice for the Mercedes junior during Thursday's press day ahead of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix:

"When you are talented, and you can see that Kimi is very talented, I don't think you should be too worried - and you have to make mistakes."

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"Ideally, you want to make these mistakes when you are not fighting for championships, so I got lucky starting at Toro Rosso, where not so many people are looking at you."

Verstappen knows what he's talking about when it comes to making mistakes. At the start of his F1 career, he was known as "crash-stappen."

However, what is important is that he learned from every mistake and progressed forward, and we know where that led him—winning three consecutive titles (and being well on his way to the fourth one). The 26-year-old added:

"So you can make some silly mistakes here and there because it is important to make them because even though you tell yourself all the time: 'I cannot do this, I cannot do that,' you will only adapt really if you make them and then move forward."

"When you are that young, you just focus on trying to go as fast as you can, make your mistakes and have good race results and try not to think too much about it."