Bradley Lord, Mercedes' chief communications officer, has explained that Lewis Hamilton was advising Kimi Antonelli during the latter stages of the 2024 campaign, with the Italian teenager ever-present in the Silver Arrows' garage ahead of his promotion into a race seat for 2025. Hamilton has taken a proactive approach to defending Antonelli throughout the 18-year-old's rookie campaign in F1.
The Bologna-born starlet has enjoyed standout weekends in Australia and Canada, but also his fair share of troubling moments. Heading into the summer break, he finished in the top nine positions just once in an eight-race run. Antonelli's worst weekend came in Belgium, where he was eliminated in Q1 both in the sprint shootout and in Grand Prix qualifying. Ahead of the race on Sunday, Hamilton was spotted leaving the Mercedes motorhome, and it was later revealed that he was there to support his successor with a private conversation.
Hamilton's efforts have been appreciated by his former team, and at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Lord explained that this has been a long-running theme. "I think that's entirely in character and in line with the Lewis that we've known for many, many years," he explained.
"Obviously, Kimi was in and around the team at the end of last season as well. Lewis offered his advice, his support and encouragement in that time as well, notwithstanding the fact that it was at points a pretty difficult end to the season for him.
"I think he's a fantastic ally for young drivers in the sport and has a great understanding - probably no one has a better understanding of what it means to come into the sport with very high expectations and into a top team in a rookie season as well as he did in 2007.
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"So no one understands it better, and I think his support is also hugely appreciated by Kimi and by the other young drivers that received it as well."
Antonelli has repeatedly praised Hamilton for taking him under his wing, despite driving for a rival team in Ferrari. The seven-time world champion understands the Italian's rare situation, having also debuted as a rookie for a team contending for regular race victories at McLaren in 2007.
"He came to say hi to the team, and definitely we had a couple of words," Antonelli said, explaining the conversation in Belgium. "He was telling me to keep my head up and that it's normal to have bad weekends. And to just keep believing. It was really nice."
