Kimi Antonelli: Coulthard brutal with George Russell

Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s incredible start to the season took everyone by surprise. The 19-year-old driver from Bologna dominated the first part of the Formula 1 World Championship with five consecutive victories, scrambling Mercedes teammate George Russell, a full 68 points behind. In an interview with the Up to Speed podcast, Coulthard was peremptory about the situation of the British driver, who was the big favorite for the title at the beginning of the season: next weekend Russell will have to react or he will have to say goodbye to the title six months in advance.

“It’s very simple, if he doesn’t beat Kimi in Barcelona it’s over, no world championship – the British pundit’s brutal opinion. No one has ever recovered from 68 points. He has to prove he can win a pole position in Barcelona and he has to beat Kimi. Now he has the fastest car on the grid, he has a chance to win the World Championship. And someone is teaching him a hard lesson.”

Russell, after the disastrous Monaco Grand Prix, which ended in thirteenth position amid penalties and the sensational lapping suffered by his teammate, admitted that he was in a “very strange state of mind”: “I still believe in myself a lot and I know what I can do, and we haven’t even gone 30 percent of the way yet, but we have already lost a lot of points. I’ve had very difficult times in my career, maybe with a series of two or three bad races on a personal level, but I’ve never had a series of bad luck like this.”

The “Kimi-mania” that has swept Italy, meanwhile, is a phenomenon that goes far beyond the boundaries of Formula 1. The number of his followers on Instagram has risen from 4.5 million in January to the current 7 million, making him the most followed driver of his generation and surpassing the likes of Italian champions Gianluigi Donnarumma, Pecco Bagnaia and Jannik Sinner in popularity.