How much of Kimi Antonelli's success is down to his own ability? The question follows almost every rising star in Formula One.
Antonelli, an Italian, joined Mercedes for the 2025 season as a teenager, taking the seat Lewis Hamilton left when he moved to Ferrari. He came up through the team's junior programme, which backs young drivers from an early age and tries to prepare them for a place on the grid.
The car
Separating a driver's talent from his equipment is harder in Formula One than in most sports. Each team builds its own car, so a quick one can flatter the person driving it, and a poor one can hide a gifted driver. We also have to allow for reliability, pit-stop speed and race strategy, which all feed into the final result.
That is why we rarely judge a driver's results in isolation. A top team gives its drivers a strong car, but it also raises expectations. Finishing high up is seen as the minimum, and the gap to the other driver in the same team becomes the most useful yardstick.
How drivers are compared
The cleanest comparison is between teammates, because they drive nearly identical cars under the same conditions. Analysts look at qualifying, the session that sets the starting order, where a driver tries to set the fastest single lap. They also look at race pace, meaning how quickly a driver can lap over a full distance while looking after the tyres, whose grip fades as they wear.
Consistency matters as well. A driver who avoids mistakes, stays out of collisions and brings the car home regularly collects more championship points than one who is occasionally brilliant and often unlucky. Points are awarded for finishing positions, so steady results add up across a season.
The learning curve
A young driver also has to learn the sport while competing. Formula One cars are complex machines with many settings, from brake balance to the way power is delivered, and drivers adjust these during a lap. Newcomers must master this alongside unfamiliar circuits and the pressure of racing against experienced rivals.
Because of all this, a fair verdict on a driver like Antonelli takes time. A few strong weekends can be explained by a good car or favourable circumstances, while a pattern across many races says much more about the person behind the wheel.
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