Red Bull star Max Verstappen has offered some words of advice to Mercedes prodigy Kimi Antonelli. The 17-year-old has been tipped to replace Lewis Hamilton and race alongside George Russell when the seven-time champion joins Ferrari at the end of the season.

“Going through the good moments, the bad moments, how you come out of these things, difficult weekends, where it’s just not working for you or whatever. Like, there’s so much to learn,” Verstappen explained ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.

“But on the other hand, also, don’t try to think about it too much. Just let it go. When you’re talented – and you can see that with Kimi, he’s very talented – I don’t think you should be too worried, you know, just… make mistakes. I mean you have to make mistakes.

“Ideally, of course, you like to make those mistakes when you’re not fighting for championships or whatever, so I also got lucky with that, you know, starting at Toro Rosso at the time, not many people are looking at you all the time, so you can make some silly mistakes here and there.

“But it’s important to make them because even though you tell yourself all the time I cannot do this or I cannot do that, you will only adapt really if you make them and then move forward.”