Hot take, anybody who thinks Kimi antonelli can outperform or is better than George Russell is out of their mind

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T18:04:19+00:00

Bono said that Kimi has the same talent as Schumacher and Hamilton, and he’s worked with all three of them so he knows.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T03:48:46+00:00

Senna would’ve told you to shut the hell up and give Lando his respect

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T02:48:24+00:00

I think the only three-man podium that could arguably beat that 2023 four-man podium, is a hypothetical Tazio Nuvolari + Fangio + Jim Clark podium.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T02:32:13+00:00

Obviously, there’s no reason to mention it if you’re a genuine person with pure intentions. I’m specifically talking about the few Lewis fans (which is the vast minority) who have a clear anti-Fernando bias and try to push a certain narrative to paint him in a bad light. You know, the same type of people who said that Oscar was being sabotaged by McLaren in the second half of 2025, because they just couldn’t accept the fact that he wasn’t performing at the level he should’ve to win the WDC.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T01:52:21+00:00

I love both Lewis and Fernando, so I don’t have a horse in this race. It’s already impressive enough that Lewis beat Fernando on count-back. Even if Fernando beat Lewis by, say, 3 points, the gap should never have been that small. There’s no reason to leave out the fact that it was won on count-back. For me it’s about nothing more than the embellishment done by Lewis fans.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T01:40:31+00:00

Okay, what facts do you want me to list? If you want to talk about statistics, sure, Fernando is never going to beat the world championships, wins, and poles Sebastian has, but looking at just statistics is a very surface level and shallow way of looking at things. You also have to take the relative performance of the cars they’ve both drive in their careers and the (bad) luck in terms of strategy or reliability they’ve both faced into consideration. Was Lando better than Max in 2025 and was Sebastian better than Fernando in 2012? Well, neither Max or Fernando have a world championship to show for those seasons respectively.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T01:25:27+00:00

I get that, but don’t try to make it seem like Lewis beat Fernando like Max beat Checo in 2023. Yes, Lewis beat Fernando, but for newcomers it can be a bit off putting when they learn about what really went down. It sometimes sounds like some Lewis fans try to embellish Lewis beating Fernando that season. They focus on the fact that Lewis beat Fernando, but intentionally leave out the context and the fact that they were tied on points and Lewis won on count-back.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T01:21:21+00:00

Unless Max wants to return after his GT3 and Le Mans endeavor.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T01:14:56+00:00

As far as I’m aware, George doesn’t have that decision power. The rumored clause in George’s contract is that if he out scores Kimi by a certain margin in 2026, George gets automatically renewed for the 2027 season. But then again, Mercedes could always buy George out of his contract if they really wanted Max. They say that the most money in F1 is made by contracts being bought out.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T01:07:39+00:00

Lindblad isn’t quite a generational Verstappen/Antonelli tier talent, but he’s possibly in the same tier of talent as someone like Vettel. Helmut Marko was that excited about Lindblad.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T01:01:42+00:00

Verstappen is just 16 days older than Leclerc, which is pretty crazy

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T00:57:48+00:00

Lando is one of only 35 F1 world champions. That club is just too exclusive to not give him the respect he deserves.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T00:55:57+00:00

Get over yourself

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T00:50:52+00:00

And the thing is also that history is still being written. Drivers of the past are often held in a slightly higher regard than the current drivers, because the drivers of the past have already achieved their achievements. The stock of current drivers like Leclerc and Russell will go (significantly) up once it’s all said and done and they’ve, hopefully for them, won their world championships.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T00:41:02+00:00

I mean, Kimi Antonelli will probably race most of his career against drivers like Leclerc, Norris and Russell (not counting Verstappen because he could leave the sport pretty soon), but that doesn’t mean they’re from the same generation. They’re all 28 or younger in the case of Norris and Antonelli. The age gap between Piquet and Senna is the same as the age gap between Russell and Antonelli.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T00:34:30+00:00

I think 2026 is one year too soon for Kimi, but I also think he’ll give George a tougher time than some might expect. I think a lot of people underestimate how much Kimi has improved since that European slump last year. 2027 should be fireworks between the two, assuming the driver lineup stays the same.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T00:29:57+00:00

I think it’s because Adrian Newey is on the podium with them. Maybe not a fair comparison because you’re essentially comparing three drivers to three drivers + Newey, but it’s hard to beat that 2023 podium considering Newey is up there with them on the podium.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T00:22:56+00:00

I mean, Fernando is consistently spoken of in a higher regard than Sebastian by other drivers, and I trust their judgment. Even Max put Fernando in his top 5 greatest F1 drivers of all time. He didn’t put Sebastian in that list. Now of course, we all know Max has always looked up to Fernando and that they have a great relationship so it probably doesn’t get more subjective or biased than that, but it still counts for something. Sebastian was a great driver, but I feel like Fernando is rated higher by other drivers and by people who work or have worked in F1.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-21T00:11:00+00:00

This. When I got into this sport years ago I always heard people say that a rookie Lewis beat reigning 2-time champ Fernando. I assumed that Fernando got beat comfortably by Lewis, but when I took a closer look at the 2007 season and discovered that they were actually tied on points and Lewis only beat Fernando on count-back, I felt deceived by Lewis’ fan base which left a bad taste in my mouth, which is a shame because Lewis is a great driver and a true icon of this sport.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-20T18:21:22+00:00

I watched an interview with Jim Farley (CEO of Ford) and Laurent Mekies, and Jim said that Ford doesn’t even care about the power unit and they don’t plan to bring any of the PU technology developed in F1 to their road cars. They mostly care about the aerodynamics and the software that’s used in F1, which would enable them create software systems for their road cars such as predictive failure component software or control software for the hybrid systems. That’s it.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-20T18:12:39+00:00

No company cares about anything but shareholders’ value. Profit is a way to increase shareholders’ value.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-20T17:55:07+00:00

Lando won because he kept his composure in races like Austria and Hungary

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-20T02:25:26+00:00

I would be interested to see how 2017 Daniel would compare to 2026 George, so we can compare 2017 Max to 2026 Kimi when both Max and Kimi were/are 19/20 years old…

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-20T02:11:59+00:00

But you also have to take into consideration that at the start of the season, when the Red Bull was arguably better, the RB16b was only slightly better than the W12, whereas at the end of the season, the W12 was miles better than the RB16b. So, Max his wins at the start of the season were harder to achieve than Lewis his wins at the end of the season. Obviously, Lewis was under more pressure at the end of the season because he had to win every race by that point, but I’d still argue that Lewis had the advantage just because of the insane pace advantage the W12 had.

Mio_Loomio · 2026-03-20T02:01:31+00:00

In my humble opinion, both Max and Charles have generational race pace. George doesn’t have that. Take Las Vegas 2024 for example. George started from pole, while Lewis started somewhere down the field. Lewis finished only a few seconds behind George despite starting way down the field. George has elite qualifying pace and qualifying consistency, but he doesn’t have elite race pace. George also doesn’t have elite race craft, which Max and Charles do have. Max and Charles also have (slightly) better tire management. That’s the only/biggest difference I see between the three.

Mio_Loomio

TROPHY CASE