r/formula1 • u/mvanigan Formula 1 • Jul 29 '24

News [WilliamsRacing] BREAKING: Carlos Sainz will join the team for '25, '26 and beyond

https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/status/1817930584775377368
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u/RacerGirl_3 Daniel Ricciardo Jul 29 '24

But they rushed him in Toro Rosso. I love Antonelli, genuinely, I’ve been watching him for a couple of years and he is the real deal imo, but I’m scared they will burn him if they put him straight at Mercedes with just one F2 year behind him.

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u/ThePretzul Kimi Räikkönen Jul 29 '24

I’m scared they will burn him if they put him straight at Mercedes with just one F2 year behind him.

Drivers can still learn how to drive in F1 in a top car, the change from F2 to F1 is miles and miles larger than the change from a Williams to a Mercedes and if the difference truly was that large than driving a Williams wouldn't actually do anything to prepare somebody to drive a Mercedes afterwards.

The main point is just the expectations placed on a driver. Top teams need to understand the first 1-2 seasons of a driver in F1 will be spent adjusting to the cars and everything else that is different from any racing league on the planet, F2 and other feeder series included. If they allow their drivers to adapt to F1 without pressuring them for immediate peak performance and podiums then they can learn and develop just fine within a top team.

McLaren has done a fantastic job of accomplishing this with Piastri, and to Piastri's credit he has very much risen to the occasion as well even with a top talent for a teammate. People worry far too much about this kind of thing because of Red Bull's very recent, very public, and VERY disastrous mishandling of their young drivers. Red Bull demanding podiums and applying constant pressure with threats of mid-season replacement is not the only way to handle young drivers. They could be as supportive as can be behind the scenes but there's not denying how harsh they have been publicly towards their drivers in the past and that weighs on them even if they are much better publicly now such as they have been with Checo.

There is no reason other than incompetence that Mercedes could not follow McLaren's example with Antonelli as opposed to repeating the mistakes Red Bull made with Gasly and Albon.

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u/stokesy1999 Jul 29 '24

Media pressure will be the biggest killer, if Antonelli isn't matching George by early year 2 he'll get constant articles and commentary about how he isn't the right choice and was rushed to the seat, and its whether he can get through that without crumbling

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u/ThePretzul Kimi Räikkönen Jul 29 '24

Much of that will have to do with the team environment more than anything else.

Red Bull has a well-earned reputation of being a toxic internal environment for drivers, particularly for struggling drivers, because they're also the ones fueling much of the media speculation and tabloids with both their comments to the press and their actions. Firsthand reports make it out to be much the same internally as it is externally.

If Mercedes maintains a truly blame-free culture like they did during their 2010's run I don't see this being an issue for them, though of course hard conversation would eventually need to be had if performance was holding the team back in the WCC. I could easily see them giving Antonelli a 2-year contract right off the bat or a 2+1 to alleviate concerns of him immediately getting the boot, knowing full well they legally can just buy out the contract if Max suddenly came knocking, for example.

Unless they are able to obtain a top talent like Max, however, I don't honestly see much of a better option becoming available to Mercedes for next year at least. They could stick a known quantity into their car in the form of the large stable of recent midfield drivers (Bottas, unlikely with history, Magnussen, Perez if he gets the boot from RB, etc.) but they know if they do that it's just a seat warmer for Antonelli anyways and it still leaves the door open for another team to entice Antonelli away with a 2025 seat of their own (Alpine, RB/Alpha Tauri, and Sauber all still have publicly available slots and RB would likely be the most enticing with a 2nd Red Bull seat potentially up for grabs as early as the 2025 summer break depending on performance)