Kimi Antonelli branded "generational talent" after dominant 2026 F1 start

Former Formula 1 race engineer Rob Smedley has branded Kimi Antonelli as a "generational talent".

The Italian driver, who is currently in his second season of F1, leads the championship with a 43-point lead over his Mercedes team-mate George Russell after the first five rounds. 

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast alongside broadcaster Jake Humphrey and former Alpine and Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer, Smedley praised the 19-year-old driver's car control.

"I was watching him, and I walked down to Turns 1, 2 and 3 and then later on I walked down to the last chicane before the hairpin, where they go under the bridge, and I was watching him down there," he said.

"He is very good. He is very good for someone who's done 1.3 seasons of Formula 1 or whatever he's at now. Seeing that makes you realise he's very good. You can see how much he's got the car on the limit.

"It's very fast when you watch it, but you can see like where he brakes, how he's got the car on the limit, the way that the car moves, how precise he is, how consistent he is in that precision of line, constantly doing the same thing."

The former engineer added, comparing Antonelli to Russell: "He's very, very good for somebody who has so little experience in the car. So fast-forward to what you've just said, to now it's a guy with six years of experience of Formula 1 when he's at his peak and I think that we have a generational talent. I really do think he's that good."

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

When asked if he had thought that prior to the start of the 2026 season, Smedley added: "Yes. I thought it when he was in the junior formula."

Antonelli replaced Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes after the seven-time champion decided to move to Ferrari at the start of 2025. In his first season with the Brackley outfit, Antonelli finished seventh in the drivers' championship and celebrated on the podium three times, with his best finish second place at the Brazilian Grand Prix. 

But with a year of F1 experience under his belt and Mercedes coming out strong in the new regulations, Antonelli claimed his first grand prix win at the Chinese Grand Prix and hasn't stopped collecting trophies since. With his win at the Canadian Grand Prix, he became the first driver to take his first four grand prix victories consecutively.