Antonelli: Very helpful having Bottas around

Vastly experienced 35-year-old, Bottas, veteran of 246 Grand Prix starts, lost his seat with Sauber at the end of last year and returned to the former champions in a back-up role as Mercedes reserve driver. He is also a reserve for McLaren and Williams, due to a reserve driver-sharing agreement between the Merc-powered teams.

Antonelli, 18, credited the Finnish driver with making a huge difference in helping turn things around for him on track in Japan this month.

"I'm never going to refuse or never not going to listen to any advice," the Italian teenager told reporters ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: "I'm just a young fella coming into the world of F1. I've got so much more to learn. So it's been extremely helpful..."

Antonelli revealed: "Together with him I was able to turn around massively the weekend from what it was looking before in practice to what it looked in qualifying and then after the race. In Suzuka I was definitely struggling a lot with (tyre) warm-up.

"So that was a really good help from him, explaining the best things to do in the warm-up in order to be able to extract the best of the tyre, having the tyres ready for the lap. It's not so much about driving but all about those little details that can make the difference on track," explained Antonelli.

Fast becoming the sport's most popular driver, veteran F1 fans and particularly among GenZs, Antonelli is P6 in the 2025 F1 standings after four races and finished sixth in Japan. He also became the youngest driver to lead a Grand Prix and set a fastest lap.

Bottas raced at Mercedes for five seasons from 2017-2021, winning ten GPs in Silver, alongside seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, now at Ferrari, and finished overall runner-up in 2019 and 2020. He won in Japan in 2019.