Given his tender age, his rapid rise through the ranks and his immediate promotion to a top team like Mercedes , there was plenty of anticipation around Andrea Kimi Antonelli 's F1 debut this year.

Mercedes' hand was perhaps forced by Lewis Hamilton 's earlier than expected departure, but it still decided to press ahead and promote its homegrown talent after a generous private testing programme twinned with an F2 campaign, with Antonelli having flown through the junior ranks before that.

The now 19-year-old got off to a good start with fourth in a tricky mixed weather Melbourne race, and he took a shock sprint pole in Miami, but his season started going downhill over the European triple-header in May.

At Imola he was clearly overwhelmed by the attention on his home debut. Coincidi

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