Kimi Antonelli ♛has spoken for the first time about his first meetings with Max Verstappen.

The reigning F1 champion will have a new rival 🦄on the 2025 grid when Antonelli arri🔴ves for a much-vaunted rookie campaign.

Teenager Antonelli is repla꧒cing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.

Antonelli was asked if rival driv♎ers c🥂ould be friends.

“Off the track yes,” he was quoted by .

“B♚ut on the track you can't loꦫok at anyone, no one does you any favours and you can't have any.

“There you are racing only for yourself.”

Antonelli spoke positively about Verstappen: "I've spoken to him a few times and he's a great person, 𓆏I like him a lot.

“We've also raced a🌌gainst him 🥂in the simulator and he follows the minor categories a lot.

“On the tr𝓰ack he's seen as very rigid, but off it he's very easy going, norm🅺al."

Verstappen was once the highly-touted teen starlet 🅘⛎arriving on the Formula 1 grid.

Next year, Antonell🎃i will be joined by Ollie Bearman while Jack Doohan and Liam Lawson also represent young, talented options.

Antonelli names F1 hero

Antonelli was reminded that reaching F1 by the age of 18 is no🌊 small fe🃏at.

“I haven't realised it yet, maybe I will do𝔉 it in Melbourne,” he said.

“It will be very exciting, but at the moment I'm just thinking ab♛out working on myself.

“How? You try not to think about anything other than what you have to do, you concentrate on the start and try to visualis⭕eღ the various situations.

“There will be butterflies in your stomach but I try to concentrate on what to do.🦂"

Antonelli named Ayrton Senna as his F1 hero.

“I researched a lot about him,” he said.

“I understood that he was not only a great d꧟river, but a great [person].

“I like ဣto෴ think I resemble him in that I would learn a lot.

"As a child I supported Sebastian Vettel.”