Andrea Kimi Antonelli is pleased with the advice he is getting from Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff after a competitive start to his debut FIA Formula 2 season.
The Italian has been a Mercedes Junior since 2018, when he won multiple championships in a successful go-karting career.
Antonelli is also now a candidate to replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in Formula 1 for the 2025 season and race alongside George Russell.
The teenager sits seventh in the FIA F2 standings with four rounds to go and has taken two victories so far at Silverstone and in Hungary.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is ‘very happy’ with the link he has with Toto Wolff
Antonelli has had some difficult times in F2, such as failing to score a podium over the opening seven rounds.
The PREMA driver scored a breakthrough victory in damp conditions at Silverstone, taking his first win since winning at Zandvoort in FRECA on his way to clinching the title in 2023.
He skipped the FIA F3 Championship, the traditional next step up from FRECA, and has had to deal with the new pressure of racing under the nose of Formula 1.
Being part of an F1 academy can lead to opportunities to race at the highest level, but it does come with more attention on drivers as they progress through the ranks.
Antonelli has now told Autosport that he is working well with Wolff to help overcome those obstacles and that the Austrian spends time to help boost the Italian’s confidence levels as he battles in the fiercely competitive FIA F2 championship.
He said: “I am very happy with the relationship I have [with Wolff]. In difficult moments I ask him for advice and he always looks for a way to give me confidence.
“I’ll give you an example. After the disappointing qualifying in Silverstone, I called him because it was a bit of a tough time. We talked a lot and that conversation gave me back my confidence, and the next day I won and it was really nice to see him under the podium.”
Antonelli’s FIA F2 championship position doesn’t tell the full story of his potential
FIA Formula 2 is the final step on the road to Formula 1 and has produced a multitude of drivers that have been competitive in F1.
Since the series was renamed in 2017, five of the seven Formula 2 champions have reached the highest level, with three of them achieving race wins.
Antonelli remains on the fringes of the title battle, but he and his PREMA teammate Ollie Bearman have more links with F1 teams than drivers further up the order.
Bearman will drive for Haas in Formula 1 next season despite sitting down in 15th in the standings. He has also stood on the podium just once after a promising season in 2023, taking victory in the Sprint Race in Austria.
Unreliability has been an issue in recent times in the series, with a DRS failure causing issues for Pepe Marti in Jeddah as well as steering wheel drama for Jak Crawford and Marti in Belgium.
PREMA taking time to adapt to the new car Formula 2 introduced for the 2024 season also helped to ensure Antonelli’s adaptation to the series took more time.