Ferrari, Hamilton praises Antonelli
Lewis Hamilton arrived yesterday in Monza as an absolute protagonist, behind the wheel of a splendid F40, but he knows well that in Monza the crowd will not be all his, although we are talking about the best-ranked Ferrari driver. The seven-time world champion will have to share the support at least with Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli: the first for the unconditional love of thousands of fans, the second for national pride, also stirred by the World Championship lead.
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It was logical that even in Thursday’s press conference they asked Hamilton for an opinion on the Bolognese, precisely on the home weekend of Ferrari and Antonelli. They would make a nice pair, for the Englishman, but not immediately.
Hamilton’s words about Antonelli
“Antonelli in Ferrari? Everything is possible. Actually, there are many great drivers who could arrive here in the future. I think Ferrari is Ferrari. Italians cheer for Ferrari, in my opinion. Then clearly Kimi is still in the early stages of his career, and Toto will not let him go away very soon,” Hamilton commented.
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In Sunday’s race, Antonelli should not be a rival for Ferrari, as he will start from the back of the grid. For Hamilton, however, he will have an easy time in the comeback: “If we look at his performances and the gaps between teams, there are the top teams and then there is a big gap from the rest. So even starting from behind, with the power he has and the performance he shows, Kimi should recover very quickly. I believe it will be easy for him to finish between sixth and eighth place.”
“Kimi deserves what he is achieving. He is doing an extraordinary job this year, he also has a great team by his side. He has Bono, whom I know very well, who is consistent, stubborn and knows how to show him the right path. Kimi, then, also worked behind the scenes within Mercedes when I was still there, so he has seen what George and I were doing and I believe he is putting into practice what he learned in those years,” Hamilton concluded, who hopes in Monza to enforce the “distance” between master and pupil by recovering some points in the standings.
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