Jenson Button's cautionary advice for Oliver Bearman and Kimi Antonelli

Bearman was recently announced as making the leap from Formula 2 to Formula 1 with Haas for the 2025 F1 season. Meanwhile, Antonelli was linked with Lewis Hamilton's seat at Mercedes. Even if Antonelli does not get the promotion in 2025, it is widely expected that he will be racing in F1 soon.

Bearman will be 19 years old when he joins the F1 grid in 2025. He was just 18 when he made a late debut in Saudi Arabia earlier this season, filling in for Carlos Sainz, who required surgery for appendicitis. Antonelli will turn 18 in August.

Button, who was only 20 when he made his competitive F1 debut in 2000 with Williams, faced similar criticism about his age. The 2009 F1 champion had come close to scoring a point on his maiden appearance, running sixth before retiring 11 laps from the end of the Australian Grand Prix.

"I remember, even Martin Brundle said, 'It's too young for him'," Button recalled in an interview with media. "It was right to say I was very young. I had hardly any testing because the engines kept blowing up. So I didn't have enough mileage to get a super licence, but they gave me one.

"I went and crashed in Melbourne in practice, and it was like, 'See, we told you!'. Then I was running sixth in the race before the engine blew up. So I could have scored points in my first F1 race."

Button has stated he believed that young drivers should seize the chance to move to F1 when it comes, as Bearman has done and Antonelli is poised to do. He does not believe his promotion to F1 came too soon and encouraged teenage drivers to take such opportunities.

However, Button also warned that the teams have to manage the pressure on young drivers carefully. "I don't think it was too early," Button said. "You have to take every opportunity when it comes to you, especially for youngsters at 17, 18, or 19. You can't say no! But the teams need to really think about what they're doing to a driver in his career at that age.

"If he blossoms, great, but with the pressures that this sport brings, it can destroy a driver's career as well. So there's a real balance there, and teams need to be careful with it."

As Bearman and Antonelli prepare for their potential F1 careers in 2025, Button's words serve as both encouragement and caution, highlighting the fine line between seizing opportunities and managing the intense pressures of the sport.

The next Formula 1 event, the Hungarian Grand Prix, is scheduled for the weekend of 19-21 July, marking the 13th race of the 2024 season. The race will take place over 70 laps of the 4.381-kilometre Hungaroring in Budapest on Sunday, July 21.