Nico Rosberg to write to 'sensitive' Kimi Antonelli as F1 struggles continue

Nico Rosberg has pledged to write to Kimi Antonelli to offer him advice amid his ongoing struggles at Mercedes.

Antonelli commenced his rookie F1 campaign in strong fashion with five top-six results in the opening six rounds, as well as sprint pole success in Miami.

However, the European leg of the season has largely been a struggle for the 19-year-old, who has bagged just three points in the last six rounds.

Antonelli's position has not yet been confirmed at Mercedes next year, nor has team-mate George Russell's.

Rosberg, the 2016 F1 champion, has suggested Mercedes should announce Antonelli's F1 drive for 2026 as soon as possible in an effort to get his confidence back on track.

"I said that a couple of weeks or months ago even, give him the contract, because you need to give him whatever you can at the moment, just to help him with his confidence,” Rosberg told Sky F1.

“Anyway, in F1, you know that worst, worst case, you can still get out of that then during the winter.

“Obviously, you don't have to say that now, but I would also consider that.”

Nico Rosberg offers Kimi Antonelli advice

Antonelli endured a difficult race last time out at Monza as he dropped down the order following an encouraging qualifying effort, which saw him only narrowly bested by Russell.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted he found the performance “underwhelming” while highlighting his long-term faith in the Italian.

Rosberg advised Antonelli to focus on the positive elements of his race weekends as he vowed to write a private message to him.

“It’s a tough one,” Rosberg said. “He is kind of a personality like Lando, or like myself, if I may add myself to this, more vulnerable, more sensitive, more dwelling on the negativities, scared of not being good enough, scared of not doing well enough.

“And he's doing the same little unfortunate thing that Lando [Norris] does. Lando also communicates so much about his mistakes and things.

“We had him on the sky microphone after qualifying. And by all means, the qualifying was fantastic. He was only four hundredths from George Russell, so great qualifying.

“Could have just focused on, ‘hey, that was good, I'm really happy, I felt better for the first time in qualifying. Really happy to be right there with George’.

“But instead, he spent most of the time speaking about ‘yeah, that mistake in FP2, it's still hanging in there for me now, and I need to try and find a way to avoid that’.

“And that's something where someone needs to tell him that as well, it's something you can actually quite easily adapt.

“You just say, ‘Hey Kimi, something that could help you also, just focus on the good things from now on going forward. Don’t repeat talk about anything that happened in the past that's negative when talking to media'.

“You know what? I might actually write to him. Why not? I don't have his number, but I'll write to him somehow, because that's easy advice.”