Bradley Lord explains why Kimi Antonelli had "three years' worth of learning" in rookie F1 season

Mercedes Formula 1 deputy team principal Bradley Lord believes that Kimi Antonelli had three years' worth of learning in his rookie season.

The Italian driver joined the Brackley outfit in 2025, taking the seat left by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. Thrown straight into the limelight of a top team, Antonelli managed the pressure of his new role, finishing seventh in the drivers' standings with 150 points. 

He secured his maiden F1 podium finish at the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix and celebrated two more podiums in Brazil and Las Vegas.

"What's been really cool is actually seeing Kimi's belief in himself start to match the trust that the team has put in him," Lord said during the Mercedes Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show.

"So, it's really easy when you're outside the car or observing to assume every driver has perfect confidence in themselves at all times and that they have the belief that they can do it. And actually seeing Kimi build the belief in himself, go through the difficult bit last season, which I think cost you a chunk of confidence as well, but then watching you put what you needed in place to rebuild that with Baku, and Vegas, and Brazil, and those really strong performances at the end of the season, that's been the good thing.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

"It felt to me like you often talk about the difficult second album or the difficult second season for a driver, and Kimi managed to have about three years' worth of learning in one last year, possibly just being in a front-running team as well, in the pressure of a battle for P2 in the constructors, that is not often something that a rookie driver has to contend with.

"When we now see the Kimi who's come into 2026, had the reset of the winter, and it feels like you have, to me anyway, more than one season's experience under your belt, and you did a lot of learning last year at high speed."

Antonelli secured his maiden F1 grand prix win at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix and went on to take the lead of the drivers' standings with a second win at the Japanese Grand Prix.