George Russell reveals one thing he admires about Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli

George Russell has shared that he admired how teammate Kimi Antonelli has managed to deal with the pressure that comes with being an F1 driver. The Briton praised his rookie teammate for the way he has managed to tackle these challenges in his debut season.

Kimi Antonelli has been thrown into the deep end straightaway in his F1 career, driving for Mercedes and replacing Lewis Hamilton in his rookie season. The driver started the season off brilliantly but has struggled to put performances together in recent months, leading to many people questioning whether he is ready for F1 yet or not.

However, his teammate George Russell, who is now the team leader at the Silver Arrows, has claimed that he admired how Antonelli has managed to deal with the pressures of being an F1 driver in 2025, at the age of just 18.

"I admire how you're handling everything. It's not easy, F1, these days, with the pressure, and Netflix, and there's obviously a lot going on," replied Russell, when asked what he admires about Antonelli.

"So, yeah, you're doing a very good job at dealing with that. it's not easy," he added.

Russell then also joked that Antonelli was "a young man but an old soul." Antonelli dominated the F4 championships in 2022 and 2023 before his career was fast-tracked thanks to his links to the Mercedes junior program. He was quickly promoted to F3 and then F2, as Toto Wolff consistently backed him.

When Lewis Hamilton was announced to be going to Ferrari in 2025, Wolff picked Antonelli as the man to replace the 7x world champion, even without him having any prior experience in F1. It is also reported that the Italian could receive a contract extension to stay with the German team in 2026.

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F1 pundit praises Mercedes pair George Russell and Kimi Antonelli's Canadian GP performance

George Russell and Kimi Antonelli on the podium after the Canadian Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Veteran F1 journalist and pundit David Tremayne has picked the Canadian GP as his favorite race of the 2025 F1 season so far for not only George Russell's brilliant performance but also Kimi Antonelli's incredible drive at Montreal.

While reviewing the first half of the 2025 season, Tremayne claimed that a new race winner in Russell, along with a new podium sitter in Antonelli, was enough to rank the Canadian GP as the best race this season so far.

"In many ways I enjoyed the Canadian Grand Prix more than most, not just because it brought us a different winner in never-say-die George Russell, who beat Max Verstappen, but also because Kimi Antonelli showed his true potential by scoring his first podium and becoming the youngest driver so far to achieve such a result," said Tremayne, via Formula1.com.

This result was sandwiched in between three poor performances on either side for Antonelli, who has had a torrid time during the European leg of the 2025 season. He has only managed one top-10 finish in these races, which came most recently at Hungary.