"The goal is to win and to eventually fight for the world championship," declares Kimi Antonelli.

His namesake may be Ferrari's most recent Formula One World Champion, but, more worrying, is the fact that though most commonly associated with the sport, the last time an Italian lifted the coveted drivers' trophy was back in 1953!

Kimi Antonelli is hoping to bring his nation's agonizing wait to an end.

"That's absolutely the goal," he replied when asked if Mercedes is in a position to fight for the championship this year. "The goal is to win and to eventually fight for the World Championship, that's my goal, and the goal is to win and to be one of the best, so definitely that's what I want.

"Of course, George is very, very strong and definitely is ready to fight for a championship," he continued, "and he's one of the benchmarks on the grid. I think it's going to be quite fun, especially competing with him, so I'm really looking forward to it.

"I think the car, as a baseline to start with, is pretty good," he said of last week's shakedown. "It's much better than expected and it's fun to drive.

"Obviously the car being a bit smaller, you feel it," he explained, "it's more agile, especially in changes of direction and in slow-speed corners which is a nice feeling, plus we don't have bouncing anymore which is another good thing, so you don't have to run the car as low and you have a bit more room to play with ride heights.

"You have a bit more room to play with the set-up, to play with the car, which is super nice and super interesting as well as a driver, to also understand what compromises you can find set-up-wise.

"I've done one year in F1 and I've learned a lot," said the Italian teenager, "but this year I will have a different approach. I feel I still need to learn quite a bit. I've had a bit of time to reflect on last season, to understand and to analyse the weekends that went well and why they went well, and the weekends that went bad and why they went bad.

"Ahead of this year I will keep the things that helped me, but on the other hand I will change some approaches that didn't really feel the best for me last year, to help me out, to prepare myself better and to feel better ahead of the race weekend."

"There's no doubt about his speed and about his race craft," said Toto Wolff of his protege, "he's going into his second season, he knows all the tracks, he knows all of you guys, he knows all the other requirements, so I'm absolutely certain it will be a good year for him.

"Having said that, I don't think we should expect him to be like George all the time, George is one of the best ones, he's been in Formula 1 a long time, he's a benchmark, and Kimi's 19 and he's going into his second season. We're going to see another step from him, that I'm certain about."