Formula 1 Italian GP

Five things we learned from Antonelli's first F1 weekend

Andrea Kimi Antonelli's grand prix weekend debut may have been short-lived due after he crashed his Mercedes F1 car, but there were many takeaways nonetheless

Jonathan Noble

Edited: Sep 4, 2024, 3:35 PM

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team, in the cockpit

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

It’s fair to say Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s first official Formula 1 weekend was one that will be remembered for years to come – although not necessarily for the right reasons.

In a remarkable 24-hour period, he had a blistering start to practice, an early shunt that grabbed the headlines, and then was officially announced as a Mercedes F1 driver for 2025.

Here is what we learned about him at Monza.

Antonelli now knows the difference between FP1 and qualifying

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes F1 W15, crashes out in FP1

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Antonelli went from hero to zero in the first minutes of free practice at Monza – topping the times briefly before his big crash at Parabolica.

While his early flashes of speed during his first FP1 outing still left his Mercedes bosses talking him up - labelling him too fast for his car/tyres rather than overdriving – it was clear that ending up in the barriers in a practice session was not a good look.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway of all from Monza is that the young Italian needs to temper his approach better in the future.

During their press conference appearance on Saturday as his 2025 deal was made public, Antonelli himself and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff both admitted that a key understanding was in knowing when to push on race weekends – and when to leave a margin.

As Wolff said: “You can't make somebody quick. Then it's on us trying to help to condition Kimi that every lap doesn't need to be like this.

“[Technical director] James Allison actually said, when he [Antonelli] launched himself on the first lap yesterday, that first braking into the chicane, he had both tyres on the left in the grass already!

“So the difference between free practice and qualifying, we need to discuss…”

Antonelli did not shy away from accepting that this approach to FP1, in being flat out from the start, was wrong.

“I learned that I cannot go flat out looking for the limit straight away, especially looking back,” he said. “The track was very slippery. The grip was quite a bit lower than expected. So yeah, just I guess I was pushing too hard.”

He later added: “Of course, I still have so much to learn, learning how to deal with a full race weekend. And I think yesterday [Friday] was the proof!”

Antonelli's practice blunder has not dimmed Mercedes' love for him

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, George Russell, Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

While some paddock figures say they would have been furious if a rookie had crashed a car like Antonelli in an FP1 session, Mercedes took a glass half-full approach.

That’s why its focus was on the speed he showed before the off, allied to the wider philosophical view that the blunder will be something that will be taken on board and not be repeated.

As Wolff said: “Kimi learned in a very, very hard way. I think that moment must have been very tough and compromised George [Russell] for his day, and his weekend, but sometimes it needs to sting, and then it sticks.”

Even future team-mate Russell said that one of the takeaways of observing Antonelli is that there is no doubt he is blindingly quick.

“When I look back to when I was 18 years old, there's obviously so much to learn,” he said. “But I think as a driver, you have the speed or you don't have the speed, and I'm very confident Kimi has the speed.

“I think everybody on their journey is going to make mistakes and that's part of life and part of this sport.”

Mercedes is ready to accept more mistakes

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Crashing a car like Antonelli did in Monza practice is the very last thing a team wants from a Friday rookie.

Indeed, if it had been any other youngster than Antonelli then the likelihood is they would not be invited back.

But despite being open that it was a key lesson learned, Mercedes is not shying away from the fact that it will probably not be the last time that Antonelli is going to do something wrong.

However, this is all part of the process that every rookie has to go through – with the old adage being that if young drivers don’t crash, they aren’t pushing hard enough.

Antonelli’s mistakes will be high-profile, because he is racing for a team that should be fighting at the front, but Wolff interestingly suggested that he had learned a lesson in waiting too long to promote Russell from Williams.

“With George he was maybe too long at Williams, but did some of the mistakes at Williams where they were not so visible,” he said.

“Now we fast-tracked Kimi. The mistakes are going to be more visible because it's in a Mercedes, but we're absolutely ready for that investment.”

Antonelli and Russell are Mercedes' future, despite contract uncertainty

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, George Russell, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

Mercedes made a deliberate effort to show complete harmony within the team at Monza as Russell was involved every step of the way in the Antonelli announcement.

He was quoted before the Italian in the official announcement press release, and sat alongside him and Wolff in the press conferences too.

Wolff did not hold back in gushing about how he feels he now has in place the two drivers he wants to lead the squad over the long term.

“I feel so much pride sitting with these two here,” he said. “The rare species of racing drivers that are capable of winning year after year, championship after championship, doesn't exist very often."

But despite the love-in for the drivers, reading between the lines of what Wolff says, there still remains a desire to see how the chemistry plays out between them before pondering future contracts beyond 2025.

“These two are the future,” said Wolff. “They have been and will be Mercedes drivers, and therefore we have contracts with George and Kimi that go much longer, and that are very complicated in terms of options, etc.

“But, like we've done in the past, we always had very short contracts with each of the drivers, even with Lewis last time around. It was one-plus-one. And this is, in a way, how the team operated.

“I think most important is to see how George and Kimi settle in, and I see no reason at that stage of not giving them the faith and the trust of going forward.

“What that means for the terms is something that we will discuss between ourselves, but we wouldn't have gone for the lineup with these two if we wouldn't believe 100% that they are the best choice for Mercedes.”

Antonelli is humble off the track but aggressive on it

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

Antonelli’s ten minutes of running in practice, allied to what we have seen from him in Formula 2 this season, shows he is not afraid to take things to the edge.

But if there was one thing he slightly struggled with during his appearance on Saturday it was answering a question to describe himself – both his personality and his driving style.

“Well, about me?” he smiled. “I'm a really empathic person, and while on track, I have a quite an aggressive driving style…”

It was left to Wolff to step in, who said that anybody who talks about themselves often just looks like an idiot.

But he offered his viewpoint on the kind of personality we can expect from the rookie.

“What to say about Kimi?” said Wolff. “Perfect family background. His father knows everything about racing that you need to know. Wonderful mother that has been supportive.

“I think you can recognise a pattern with the strong dads that understand racing and give the right support and the right stick, and the mother that is trying to be the nice one in the relationship.

“Raw talent he definitely has, and an ability that you can't train. As I said before, it's easier to make somebody calm down in terms of aggressiveness than the other way around…”

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