Nigel Mansell: Modern Formula 1 makes young drivers competitive immediately

The 19-year-old Italian now heads the Drivers’ standings on 100 points, 20 ahead of Mercedes team mate George Russell, while the Silver Arrows hold a commanding 68 point advantage over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.

Former World Champion Nigel Mansell believes the current grid features some of the strongest driver combinations Formula 1 has seen in years, particularly among the leading teams.

“I think there’s great combinations out there. Ferrari’s got a great combination, those other two teams with McLaren and Mercedes,” Mansell told the AceOdds Media team.

“And you know, there’s some other good combinations out there as well, I mean, you know, Red Bull, with Max leading it and Hadjar, who has done a great job already this year. All these other teams need to get these tweaks helping them more than the teams at the front, and then all of a sudden you get better racing.”

Antonelli’s rise has become one of the defining stories of the season, with the rookie adapting immediately to Formula 1 despite his age and limited experience at many circuits on the calendar.

Mansell argued that the modern era has fundamentally changed how quickly young drivers can become competitive.

The Briton explained: “The thing is in my day you wouldn’t have a 19-year-old leading the World Championship because of the physicality of driving a car without all the gizmos on and power steering and without the knowledge of how to do what you have to do because you didn’t have computers to do it for you.

“This new age has made it so much easier for the drivers and the drivers coming in to actually be competitive straight away and the simple thing that people forget is that we used to go around the world three or four times a year because test beds were the race circuits we raced on.

"We didn’t have simulators, we didn’t have all these aerodynamic wind tunnels. We went testing aerodynamically on the tracks we were racing at," said Mansell, who also highlighted the role of simulators and advanced preparation tools in accelerating driver development.

“How you gain experience was actually doing the tests, doing the racing and that, and our drivers can come into Formula 1, and they can be super quick on a track they’ve never been on, because they go straight in the simulator, the simulator’s correlation to the track is literally within thousands of a second, so it’s like Christmas on sticks," added the 1992 F1 World Champion.

Mansell also praised the FIA and manufacturers for the huge improvements in safety and career longevity compared to previous generations: "Then the other fantastic thing that the FIA have done with the manufacturers is that Formula 1 is so safe now. Nobody has to worry about getting injured, hopefully.

"And so you can just go and do whatever you wanna do with great ease in some ways, and look at the longevity of their careers now. Look how many Grand Prix they do. It’s absolutely astonishing. So good luck, all power to their elbows.”

One of the rookies to impress Mansell most has been Racing Bulls youngster Arvid Lindblad, who has shown strong pace at several circuits he had never previously raced on.

“Arvid Lindblad just reinforces exactly all those things I said, because, you know, you can do all that work in the simulator, and you can learn a lot of things, he’s got a talent, he’s got confidence,” Mansell said.

“And you know, he goes to a brand new circuit and he’s quick and you go, well, years ago that couldn’t happen. So, it’s a wonderful opportunity for the new breed of drivers coming in to demonstrate how skilful they are, and he’s demonstrating that and he’s done a very, very good job so far.”

Formula 1 heads next to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix, with Mercedes firmly in control of both championships, while Aston Martin continue searching for answers after a difficult start to the season.