In a recent interview, Bradley Lord, who serves as the communications director and spokesperson for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, explained how both the team and seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton are playing an important role in supporting the young Italian driver Kimi Antonelli.
After starting his debut Formula 1 season in the best possible way, Kimi Antonelli has faced a series of difficulties in recent races that have led to his talent being questioned — not only by the media and fans, but above all by himself. Following a run of races without scoring points — a situation made worse by a technical change introduced to the Mercedes W16 that also challenged his far more experienced teammate George Russell — Antonelli managed to return to the points in the Hungarian Grand Prix. However, his performance then dropped again at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, where he finished at the lower end of the standings. After that difficult weekend, support for Antonelli came directly from former Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
In his interview, Mercedes’ communications chief Bradley Lord described Lewis Hamilton as a “fantastic ally” for young drivers such as Kimi Antonelli, highlighting the value of his experience and mentorship.
A valuable ally for young drivers
“I think it’s absolutely consistent with the character and the person we have known for many years,” Lord said, referring to the seven-time Formula 1 World Champion. “Kimi was already around the team environment at the end of last season, and even back then, Lewis was offering him advice, encouragement, and moral support, despite the fact that for Lewis it was a rather challenging end to the season himself.
“I believe he is a fantastic ally for young drivers, and that he possesses a unique understanding — probably nobody understands better than him what it means to enter this sport with incredibly high expectations, joining a top Formula 1 team in your rookie season, just as he did in 2007. Nobody has a better perspective on this, and I think his support is very much appreciated both by Kimi and by other young drivers who have benefited from it.”
The support from Mercedes
According to Bradley Lord, Mercedes as a team is also doing everything possible to help Kimi Antonelli regain confidence and to provide him with a car that allows him to feel at ease and extract his potential.
“As you might expect, when the car became more difficult to drive and both drivers lost confidence and the ability to attack the corners decisively, it became particularly complicated for Kimi,” Lord explained. “This loss of confidence, combined with the step back in performance that we have seen, made him more vulnerable to early eliminations in qualifying compared to what was happening at the beginning of the season. It is certainly a difficult moment for the entire team, and especially for him.
“The main problem lies with the car — there are no doubts or shortcomings from Kimi’s side, apart from the lack of experience that he naturally does not yet have and has not had the chance to acquire. Our approach, therefore, is to encourage him to learn as much as possible from these experiences, rather than focusing solely on the race results, and to place the emphasis on the process that will allow him to regain confidence and performance.
“We aim to achieve this by having him spend as much time as possible with the team and with the engineers. In this way, he can truly understand what we are doing with the car and how he can extract the maximum performance from it. For us, the priority is to give him a machine that allows him to express the natural talent that we know he has, and to continue transforming that potential into tangible results on the track.
“So, complete honesty about where we currently stand and what we can improve, followed by total support in this process of progress — both on the technical side, in order to give our drivers the tools they need to deliver strong performances, and on the personal development side, to help them achieve those goals.”
Leave a Reply