George Russell bats for under-fire Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli

George Russell has come out in defense of under-pressure Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli and said that the concerns around the Italian's form are unfounded. The young Italian has joined the team this season as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton.

As a teenager, Kimi Antonelli has got a shot at driving for one of the top teams in the sport, and this is a result of the kid being very impressive during his junior career. As a result, he was fast-tracked from FRECA to F2 to F1. The start to life at the pinnacle of the sport was fine for Kimi, as he wasn't too far behind George Russell.

He got his first career sprint pole in Miami. He even ended up picking his first podium in F1 in Canada, where he finished P3 behind George Russell and Max Verstappen. His run after the podium in Canada has been under the scanner.

The driver hasn't been able to get the kind of results that his teammate has had or even be close enough to him. George Russell has, however, batted away these suggestions, as he feels that the young Italian has been more or less at the same gap; it's just the Mercedes drop in performance that has made Kimi look worse. Talking to Motorsport, he said,

"The fact is, his pace delta, to me, is no different, I think. In Canada, I was on pole and he qualified fourth, but he was six tenths behind me. In Belgium, he was out in Q1 and I made it to Q3 - but he was only three tenths off me."

He added,

"So, people look at the underlying result, but the truth is, he's still making progress, even though we, as a team, have gone backwards. Suddenly, you're now in the fight where a tenth can be six or seven grid spots. Before, for the positions we were fighting for, a tenth is one position."

Kimi Antonelli echoes George Russell's comments

Kimi Antonelli echoed what his Mercedes teammate said, where he mentioned that the drop in car performance has played a role in the drop in results. To add to this, the Italian felt that he was suffering a loss of confidence in the car since the introduction of the upgrade. He said,

"Since we moved to that suspension, apart from Canada, I've been struggling to drive the car and getting the confidence. Also, I didn't adapt the best because I was always trying to keep my style and to drive the car the way I wanted, but it didn't really work out."

The gap in points between Kimi Antonelli and George Russell has been massive at the midway point of the season. The Italian is, however, still on a learning curve and would be looking to build things up from this point and have a better second half of the season.