Helmut Marko responds after Martin Brundle said Kimi Antonelli would be ‘living in fear’ at Red Bull

Follow us on Google Discover

Kimi Antonelli would be fearing for his career right now if he was on Red Bull’s books, Martin Brundle says. Antonelli has suffered a dramatic loss of form in recent months.

The Mercedes rookie has only scored points in one of the last seven races. Bizarrely, that was a podium finish at the Canadian GP – making him the third-youngest driver to finish in the top three.

Brundle thinks that Mercedes should have loaned out Antonelli to a midfield team rather than fast-tracking him as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement. He does at least expect Toto Wolff to be more patient than Red Bull’s bosses would be.

“He’s lucky because he’s effectively a protected species at the team and won’t be living in fear of his career like a Red Bull youngster, but the summer break can’t come early enough for him, I suspect,” Brundle wrote in his column.

Helmut Marko says Mercedes created too much ‘hype’ around Kimi Antonelli

Red Bull have a reputation as the most ruthless team on the F1 grid, one that was strengthened by the demotion of Liam Lawson in March after just two races.

But when Brundle’s comments were put to Helmut Marko by F1-Insider, he argued that Red Bull don’t put their drivers under the same ‘immense pressure’ that Antonelli faces at Mercedes. That’s because they can start out at the sister team.

Even drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen spent their first year or so learning in the midfield before they stepped up to the top team.

Marko thinks that Mercedes allowed too much ‘hype’ to build around their new signing. For instance, they unleashed the Italian on soft tyres just minutes into his free practice debut on home soil last year, only for him to crash heavily.

“The big difference is that, when we bring juniors into Formula 1, they first drive in Racing Bulls, where they are not exposed to such immense pressure,” Marko explained.

“We do not create such hype about a young driver before he races in Formula 1. There are certain differences.”

What Kimi Antonelli told Helmut Marko about his Mercedes struggles

Marko sees similarities between the Mercedes and Red Bull cars. Verstappen and George Russell, both regarded as elite drivers, can cope with their idiosyncrasies and deliver consistently strong results.

But for Antonelli, or indeed Lawson/Yuki Tsunoda, it’s easy to lose confidence. The teenager revealed to Marko that he’s recently lost ‘control’ of the W16 when he tries to push flat-out.

Marko is somewhat relieved that Mercedes didn’t have a ‘second team’ to prepare Antonelli. In the end, it may have made life more difficult for one of Red Bull’s biggest rivals.

• READ MORE: Alex Jacques believes Mercedes ‘regret’ one Kimi Antonelli career decision after difficult Belgian Grand Prix

“I don’t want to make any outside comments on how things work for any other team. Antonelli is certainly very fast, but also a very young driver.

“Strangely enough, we spoke briefly in the hotel at Spa, and he said that he has no confidence in the car. As soon as he pushes, he no longer has control.

“It’s more of a mental thing, and it seems that [with] his car, like ours, it’s very critical to be in the working window. When it does work, it’s much more potent, and of course a driver like Russell does it much more easily.

“Mercedes, thank goodness, don’t have the luxury of a second team.”