Flamboyant qualifiers, laborious race: Antonelli still learns

Leaving Miami with ten more points on the clock does not give thanks to the weekend of Kimi Antonelli, and yet, the Rookie of Mercedes seemed to cross a first CAP in Florida. Very fast from the first tests, he offered himself the Sprint pole in the process, twenty-four hours before interfering between the two McLaren in third place in the grid.

Meanwhile, he had a sprint spoiled by an error at the start and a stop at the ruined stand by Red Bull. On Sunday in the race, he had a hard time finding the pace and dropped in sixth row, behind the Williams of Alexander Albon. The young Italian found himself in difficulty with his gums.

“I have to analyze the racing pace”he explains. “Today, it simply was not good, especially with the hard tires. I really had trouble making them work during the relay, I slipped a lot and I could not make good times. So I should clearly analyze what did not work to be able to be better in Imola.”

“I think this race was apart, because it is the first time that I really find it as much difficult to make the tires work. But there are still a lot of positive points to remember for the next weekend.”

Thus Kimi Antonelli believes that she had completed his most complete weekend since his beginnings in Formula 1 “On certain points”while conceding being far from the account in other areas.

“It is a lot linked to experience and confidence with the car, to be able to attack it more and more”he specifies. “I felt pretty good from the EL1 on this side. It was also a good feeling of succeeding in better assembling everything better. It was really positive.”

Wolff feels no disappointment

At Mercedes, we delivered a similar analysis of a Miami Grand Prix on Sunday evening where Kimi Antonelli was faster than George Russell on a tour, but where the Briton did better in the race with a third place, also thanks to an inverted and facilitated strategy by a virtual safety car.

“The positive point is clearly speed on a tour”if you don’t, Serigne The Wolff. “It was great. This is one more proof of his talent and a good indicator of what the future can book. Then, in the race, it was more complicated, because here, it is really difficult to find the right references. We can wonder if the medium relay was quite fast?”

“And then, when he went to the dars, he simply lacked experience to manage them well. Finding the right bearings is not easy, even if bono [son ingénieur de course, Peter Bonnington] really tried to guide him. But when you’re in the car, it’s not easy. And I think it’s just part of learning. There is nothing disappointing in there. Overall, I leave with the feeling he did a good job. “