Kimi Antoneli revealed that Lewis Hamilton visited him and his former team ahead of the F1 Belgian Grand Prix.
Antonelli was chosen as Hamilton’s replacement for the 2025 Formula 1 season at Mercedes, following the shock decision of the seven-time world champion to leave the team.
The Italian showed a flash of pace during his rookie F1 season.
Antoneri took the pole to the Miami Misprint lace with an impressive lap.
He also won his first podium at the Canadian Grand Prix.
However, Antonelli has struggled with shape since the start of the European season.
It coincides with the Mercedes form dip, with George Russell finishing on the podium only once in his past seven races.
After the race at the spa, Antonelli was asked about a chat with Hamilton before a race at Mercedes hospitality.
“He started greeting the team. We definitely had a few words,” Antonelli said.
“He told me to keep my head up and then he said it was normal to have a bad weekend, and just to keep believing. That was really good.”
Hamilton was asked about Antonelli in a post-race interview with Sky Sports.
Hamilton admitted that it had a lot on his shoulder given that he was 18, but he said he “does a great job.”
“You can’t imagine what 18 looks like, or imagine what 18 looks like.
“He’s doing great things, but to be thrown into the deep edge at 6pm… he didn’t even have a driver’s license when he first started racing.
“I think there’s a lot on someone’s shoulder. He does a great job and has a great group of people around him. So I think you have to take it on your walk.
“And he has Bono (Peter Bonnington, a race engineer who previously worked with Hamilton), and he has no one there.”
Another tough weekend for Antoneri
The Belgian Grand Prix was something Antonelli should have forgotten in the end.
He was knocked out in the first quarter in two qualifying sessions.
“The few laps I was in free air made me definitely more enjoyable,” he recalls.
“Then it’s very frustrating to get stuck because you can’t really unleash the real pace you have. When I got stuck, I suddenly got two seconds late.
“It was tricky, but I don’t think we should start that far before, I think we need to work on qualifying and work to regain confidence in the car to start more in front.