James Vowles discusses Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Logan Sargeant’s scene, as FIA confirms F1 superlicense query.
The rumours are full on regarding Mercedes junior Antonelli making his F1 debut already in 2024 especially in Imola in the Emilia Romagna GP. The Italian racer tested at Red Bull Ring and has been testing at Imola as well this past week.
Despite his current stint in F2 with Prema, Antonelli’s name has been hot about potential F1 debut and the links are about replacing Sargeant at Williams. The American is in his second year and hasn’t been on par with Alexander Albon thus far with high targets set.
Questions have already been raised on his career and retaining his seat beyond 2024 will be a tricky job. In the meantime, the FIA has been requested for a superlicense for Antonelli, who is underage until August being a 17-years-old.
“We have received this request, and we are looking into it,” stated the FIA. “But there’s a process to be followed and multiple people/commissions required to vote and agree to it as it requires a rule change.”
It is unclear if it is Mercedes and or Williams who have requested for it, but it must be the German manufacturer doing so. Nothing has come from their side so far, but Vowles has played down the chances of Antonelli joining the F1 team whether now or later.
Testing with Mercedes –
Vowles: “My information source is journalism for that. So I don’t have any direct communication with Mercedes on how he’s doing in the tests. I just understand that he has been testing in Imola and I think he also did Austria at the same time. So for that one, everything I read is what you read, which as far as I can tell, it’s good. But you can’t really compare in that situation. It’s older cars. I’m not sure if it’s a ‘21 or a ‘22 car. And there’s nothing really to reference it to.”
Links to Williams –
Vowles: “I’m sure there’s a desire, but I’ll give you my perspective on it. We have far bigger problems to solve than drivers at the moment. Alex has done championship-level drives and at the moment he’s not scoring points and fundamentally we have it on us to improve our car going forward. That’s my primary concern more than anything else and what we do with drivers going into ’25, ‘26. All of us here… Not actually Zak, he did a really good job early on in the season. But a lot of us here, and Mike’s done his now, are just sorting out where we’re going to be for next year fundamentally. And of that, there are options on the table, but it is far too early to tell. In the sense of Kimi, you have to remember it’s just 20 months ago he was in a Formula 4 car. That’s a large, large step up into a Formula 1 car in such a short space of time.”
Any conversations for early joining –
Vowles: “Let’s put it this way. I haven’t spoken to Kimi since Abu Dhabi last year. Hopefully that puts it in context. I know nothing about what’s going on at Mercedes’ tests right now. We are looking, as everyone else is, for where we want to be on driver line-up for next year and we have our own young driver programme. In the case of Kimi, I can’t really adjudicate on the level he’s at. In case of him coming into the car this year, I’ve always said from the beginning, it’s a meritocracy. Logan has to earn his seat. And at the moment, he has some tough targets where he has to get much closer to Alex. But there is nothing on the radar at the moment for replacing him.”
Targets for Sargeant –
Vowles: “Hopefully I didn’t say exactly those words, that would be very harsh of me. But what I was saying last year was at the end of the year, he came close to Alex, which is what I wanted him to do, but that progression had to continue. He had to be at the point where he’s not sitting a tenth behind him, but rather challenging him and out-qualifying him and out-racing him, fundamentally. We’re still on that journey. What Logan has as a challenge, fundamentally, in front of him is enormous. We can’t underrate where Alex is as a driver. He was, I think, underrated before and he’s a brilliant, brilliant driver in his own entity. In terms of Logan, what I’ve been asking for him is, despite the pressures of the world, the pressures we’ve created, the pressures I’ve created, the pressure all of you have created, you need to pull that all and put it behind you and make sure you’re now out there fighting and out-qualifying Alex, pushing the team forward as a result of things.
“And those targets effectively are encompassed in a number of other more formal ways of putting it. Without doubt, this is a tough field. There’s no doubt about it. But as I said all the way through, it’s meritocracy, earn your place. Now, he’s got more work to do, but he’s also one of the top 20 Formula 1 drivers in the world on the grid. And there’s a reason for that. And here in Miami at his home Grand Prix, I’m putting him on my shoulders and supporting him because that’s what we should be doing at this point. He’s in the car. He’ll remain in the car. And my job here is supporting him.”
Here’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s first Mercedes F1 test
Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact