Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli said he was "surprised by the level of intensity" required to stay with the front-runners during his first Formula 1 race in Australia last weekend, ahead of taking to the track again for the Chinese Grand Prix.
The 18-year-old Italian, the German team's pick to replace seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton following his switch to Ferrari, finished fourth in a rain-hit season opening race in Melbourne, navigating his way through the field after qualifying in 16th position having run wide and damaged his car.
"Definitely, for a first race they were not the easiest of conditions," Antonelli told a news conference on Thursday ahead of his second F1 outing in Shanghai.
"I'm not going to lie, at the start I was a bit nervous, because I started at the back in the rain, and things can happen, but it was a good experience.
"What really surprised me was the level of intensity that I have to keep in order to perform and be able to stay with the front-runners.
"It's all so intense. As a driver, you want to be on the top of your game, you want to be [up] there, you want to be fast."
Antonelli, one of six new drivers lining up on the starting grid for the first time this year, only began driving single-seater cars in 2021.
He skipped Formula 3, an F1 feeder series, and Mercedes accelerated his development through Formula 2 by giving him private tests in older cars last year.
His fourth-place finish in Melbourne made him the youngest F1 debutant to score points, but Antonelli's first public outing in the sport was marred by a 118 mph crash in a practice session at last year's Italian Grand Prix.
"Monza was a really terrible moment for me as a driver, but I think I learned a lot from it," Antonelli said, adding that crashing out in front of his home crowd had changed him both as a driver and as a person.
"I'm not going to lie, when I was in FP1 in Monza, I was pushing. I was free to push, and I was like no fear ... on the limit, not caring about anything else," he said.
"I learned after that ... it's better to take a step back and its better to push progressively and build the session because when such a mistake happens, you make a lot more steps back than you make forwards."
Mercedes has paired the young Italian with the same race engineer that seven-times world champions Michael Schumacher and Hamilton worked with while driving for the team, Peter Bonnington.
"Having someone who has gone through all that already really helps you because I know he would be able to guide me in every situation," Antonelli added.