Different destinies
No one at the beginning of the year would probably have imagined reaching the summer break with Andrea Kimi Antonelli as the absolute leader of the World Championship. The very young Italian talent of Mercedes has dominated with six wins in 11 GPs and at the halfway point of the season boasts a 50-point lead over the first chaser in the championship – Lewis Hamilton – and even 59 over his teammate George Russell, who in the pre-season predictions was supposed to make a quick meal of this championship.
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One who is watching Antonelli’s record-breaking season with interest is his former teammate from the Prema days, in F2: Ollie Bearman. The two spent a year side by side in the Italian team, when one was the young Mercedes prospect and the other Ferrari’s, but with ‘inverted nationalities’: “Yes, it was quite funny – Bearman himself recalled in an interview for the official F1 podcast Beyond The Grid – Actually, talking with Kimi, we used to say that when we raced in F2 I was the British guy with an Italian team and he was the Italian with a British team, in the sense that, obviously, the Mercedes F1 team is based in the United Kingdom”.
Envy or motivation?
Paradoxically, Hamilton’s move from Mercedes to Ferrari has overturned the short-term destinies of both: Antonelli was promoted by Toto Wolff to the seat that had belonged to the seven-time world champion, while Bearman followed a more traditional path, entering F1 with a second-tier team like Haas. However, the Englishman does not seem envious of the success his former teammate is achieving, quite the opposite. This ‘World Championship form’ Antonelli seems to be something reassuring for Bearman and he himself explained why.
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“I have great confidence from this point of view – Bearman commented – and it is probably for this reason that I can sleep peacefully knowing that Kimi and also Isack [Hadjar], are guys who are getting incredible results with equally fast cars. This shows me that I have what it takes, because I have raced against them throughout my career in the junior categories and I have always achieved positive results. So this tells me it’s just a matter of time. I’m not in a hurry, but when I have the car that can win races, I will win races“.
