George Russell expects Kimi Antonelli to ‘keep him on his toes’ in F1 2025

George Russell has described Andrea Kimi Antonelli as “exceptionally fast” and that he has “no doubt” he’s going to be a close match at Mercedes in F1 2025.

Antonelli was officially announced as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement for the 2025 F1 season at the Italian Grand Prix.

The 18-year-old has spent just one year in single-seaters before making the move up to F1 next year.

While Antonelli has already shown great pace in F1 machinery, his first outing for Mercedes in FP1 at Monza didn’t end well.

Antonelli crashed within the opening few minutes of his first run in FP1 at the infamous Parabolica corner.

Assessing the challenge of Antonelli next year, Russell said: “I think I’ve always believed that you gain a lot over time with experience, in terms of how to deal with the race weekend, the tyres, the team, but I don’t believe I’m any faster today on raw pace than I was when I was 17 years old

“And I think you’ve either got the speed or you don’t have the speed, and Kimi absolutely has the speed. He’s proven that in all of his categories.”

While Russell sits behind Hamilton in this year’s drivers’ championship, there’s no doubt that the former Williams driver has had the edge over one lap.

Russell admitted he’s “looking forward to a new challenge” alongside Antonelli.

“There will be mistakes on the way as there were for all of us – I think every single driver on the grid in Formula 1 in their first couple of seasons made very visual mistakes, and that’s going to be obviously highlighted more for any driver who’s at the front of the field,” he explained.

“But Kimi’s exceptionally fast and I’ve got no doubt he’s going to be really keeping me on my toes next year, and I’m really looking forward to a new challenge.

“Three years working with Lewis has been exceptional, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do together from next year onwards.”