Antonelli can be the next Valentino Rossi for Italy, Mercedes boss says

Kimi Antonelli can emulate Valentino Rossi as an Italian global racing ambassador after becoming the youngest ever Formula 1 world champion, his boss has said. The 20-year-old, from the motorsport hotbed of Emilia-Romagna, finished third in Mexico City on Sunday but won his first Formula 1 title, becoming the youngest in history and the first Italian champion in over 70 years. And Bradley Lord, his Mercedes team’s deputy team principal, believes Antonelli has the capacity to follow legendary biker Rossi, who won seven world championships in MotoGP. New world champion “He s a hot property because he s redefining a very big benchmark in terms of youngest world champion and not doing it by a couple of days or months, but by a couple of years,” Lord told City AM. “What we re seeing with Kimi is unprecedented in the history of the sport. And on a sporting level, that s an incredible achievement. “We were lucky enough to work with Lewis [Hamilton] for many years. And what