Former Haas F1 Team team principal Guenther Steiner has raised a “fear” over Kimi Antonelli’s title chances, suggesting he could be susceptible to the kind of issues that hurt Oscar Piastri last season.
Antonelli has made an exceptional start to his second campaign and leads the drivers’ standings by 20 points over Mercedes team-mate George Russell following three consecutive victories.
The 19-year-old has grown in confidence rapidly since the Chinese Grand Prix and beat Russell on pure pace alone last time out in Miami.
It has seen the teenager become the favourite for the championship among some bookmakers, who initially had Russell as the clear frontrunner.
Momentum is firmly in Antonelli’s favour compared to his more experienced team-mate, who faces the difficult task of ending the Italian’s current dominant run.
However, in Steiner’s eyes, it remains to be seen whether Antonelli suffers a similar dip to Piastri last season, when the Australian went from looking destined for the crown to seeing a couple of difficult moments severely damage his chances.
Asked if it is Antonelli’s title to lose, Guenther Steiner told the Red Flags Podcast: “To lose? He still needs to win it, you know. But he’s showing all the signs of not being bothered by whatever’s happening.
“The thing I mostly fear is that maybe he has some issues and then loses his cool a little bit, like Oscar did last year. He was well in command, let’s say before the summer break, and after the summer break, two things happened that he didn’t like, and he lost the championship.
“Yeah, maybe it is his to lose, but I think we’re still early in the season.
“But what I see here is that, whatever we say, George didn’t have issues [in Miami], so there was nothing really to explain it. Even in qualifying, Kimi was better. He’s doing a very good job.”
