Kimi Antonelli: “I need to analyse my race pace”

A hope that confirms all the promises placed in him. At only 18 years old, Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli is making a more than convincing start to the season with Mercedes. After the Miami Grand Prix, he is in sixth place in the championship between the two Ferrari drivers. These results allow Mercedes to occupy second place in the constructors’ championship.

Recruited from F2, during which he achieved several standout performances (two victories and a sixth place in the championship), the Bologna native impresses his team, particularly in the practice of fast laps. He demonstrated this once again last weekend by twice outperforming his teammate George Russell and even securing the best time during the sprint qualifications on Friday. Nevertheless, Lewis Hamilton’s replacement knows that he still has room for improvement, particularly in one area: race pace.

A lack of experience according to Toto Wolff

Despite securing pole position in the sprint race and finishing third in the main race, the Italian always ended up behind his starting position. On Saturday, he ruined his chances of victory at the very first corner by braking a bit too hard and going off track. The Grand Prix went from bad to worse for Antonelli as when he turned his steering wheel to enter the pits, he was hit by Verstappen’s Red Bull and could only pit the following lap. Nonetheless, he managed to secure two points for the seventh place.

On Sunday, everything seemed different. After a good start, he took advantage of the battle between Norris and Verstappen to take second place from the Briton. Unfortunately, he was then unable to keep up with the pace of the McLarens. Moreover, while the Italian driver managed to maintain a similar pace to Russell during the first stint, it was mainly because the Briton was on hard tires. When both drivers changed tires, with Russell taking advantage of the virtual safety car to take third place from Verstappen, the pace of the two Mercedes drivers was not the same. In the last 27 laps, Antonelli lost 14 seconds compared to his teammate.

A less convincing pace in the race that his boss Toto Wolff was keen to explain. In the race, it’s more difficult because it’s complicated here to find the right benchmark. One might wonder: was the stint on medium tires fast enough? With George who was holding on with hard tires — which wasn’t ideal. And then, when [Antonelli] switched to hards… He simply lacks experience to manage them well. At this stage, I think for Kimi, it was mostly about bringing the car to the finish in that position. The Austrian nonetheless said he was already impressed by his qualifying performances: I think the positive point is clearly his speed over one lap — excellent. It’s another proof of his talent and a good indicator of what the future might hold.

A lack of speed according to Antonelli

On his side, the Italian remained clear-headed despite his young age. According to him, his results would be even better if he managed to be faster in the race. “I need to analyze the race pace,” he told Autosport. “Today, it was really not good, especially with the hards. I struggled a lot to get the tires working during the stint, I was sliding a lot and couldn’t set a good time. So I clearly need to analyze what didn’t work to be better at Imola.”

A consistency worth noting all the same

The Italian nevertheless said he was satisfied with his weekend overall, as he achieved a fifth top 5 in just six races. « This race was quite peculiar since it was the first time I really struggled to make the tires work. Nevertheless, there are still many positive lessons to take away for next weekend. Many positive points. »

For Toto Wolff, Antonelli had another convincing weekend. The Austrian is convinced that the difficulties the Italian faced during the race will be resolved with time and experience. According to him, it’s about finding the right benchmarks. And I think it’s simply part of the learning curve, there’s nothing disappointing. Overall, I leave with the feeling that he did a good job.

The Italian will have the chance to achieve a better result this weekend as it will be his first home Grand Prix with F1 heading to Imola for the start of the European tour.