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Jacques Villeneuve believes Kimi Antonelli is starting to get ahead of himself amid his commanding lead in the F1 standings, highlighting a stark change in the young Italian’s attitude following some spicy radio messages at the Barcelona Grand Prix.
The 19-year-old arrived at this weekend’s Barcelona Grand Prix with a 68-point lead in the drivers’ championship – the biggest advantage in the F1 standings after six rounds in the sport’s history.
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Photo by Mark Sutton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
Since taking his maiden Grand Prix victory at the Chinese Grand Prix earlier in the year, Antonelli has become more and more confident in his own abilities as he continued to tally up the first-place trophies.
His performance at the Monaco Grand Prix only reinforced that. The young Italian didn’t put a foot wrong as he dominated the streets of Monte Carlo, going as far as lapping his struggling teammate and now outside championship candidate, George Russell.
- READ MORE: Flavio Briatore admits ‘I was wrong’ about Kimi Antonelli after what he did against Lewis Hamilton
Jacques Villeneuve disapproves of Kimi Antonelli’s change in ‘attitude’ as F1 championship leader
During his punditry duties for Sky Sports F1 at the Barcelona Grand Prix, former world champion Jacques Villeneuve noted the stark change in Antonelli’s attitude after listening to some of his furious radio messages during FP3.
Is Kimi Antonelli about to run away with the championship, or will it be close?
The championship leader came across more traffic than usual during his practice programmes, and his frustration was evident on the Mercedes team radio.
“Why do I always get traffic?” he asked his race engineer, Peter Bonnington. “I don’t understand. Like, everyone, always during my laps. There were four cars into turn one on my first lap!”
‘Bono’ immediately tried to ease his concerns, sarcastically replying, ” Yeah, unfortunately, I don’t release those cars out of the garage, mate. They leave when they want to leave.”
Sky Sports F1 presenter Natalie Pinkham then highlighted how it has been quite rare for the Mercedes ace to be moaning about traffic, to which Villeneuve replied (12:56 13/06), “Well, that’s why he starts moaning now.
“He’s like the guys who have won championships, and that gives him the right to moan when things start going wrong, or his attitude anyway. He’s not there as a learning driver anymore, and he’s leading the championship.
- READ MORE: Lando Norris shares why he’s ‘enjoying’ Kimi Antonelli dominating F1 amid his failing title defence
“He’s covered his teammate until this race weekend. So he’s got that feeling, and it gives him the power. But it could turn around this weekend.
“We saw it in turn two, someone slowed him down, so then he moved over to block them, and the [race control] tower didn’t like that.”
Villeneuve was referring to a moment with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll during FP3. After appearing to block the Canadian, Antonelli was slapped with a reprimand by the FIA for ‘driving erratically’.
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