Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli admits in retrospect that he somewhat succumbed to the pressure of his first home race. The young Italian took part in front of his home crowd for the first time during the recent Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, but this left him short of energy to achieve good results. Antonelli fell short already in Q2 on Saturday and had to make up a lot of time during the Grand Prix. To make matters worse, a throttle problem prematurely ended his race.
In the run-up to the race weekend, Kimi Antonelli was already cautious about the extra pressure in Imola. He expected it to be a mentally and emotionally ‘draining’ weekend and wanted to distribute his attention as well as possible over the different sessions. However, the pressure of home eventually took its toll. Antonelli struggled with the pace of his W16 all weekend, resulting in him ending up in the thirteenth starting position. In the race, he benefited from the timing of a VSC, which gave him a view of a finish in the points. However, in the 46th lap, things went wrong for the teenager – he dropped out with throttle problems.
Former Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve had previously criticized Antonelli. This followed the news that the 18-year-old driver had invited twenty classmates to visit the Grand Prix. A nice gesture, but according to Villeneuve, it did not show the right focus. In retrospect, the Mercedes driver agreed that his approach during his first home race was ‘not optimal’. “Both mentally and emotionally, it was an intense weekend,” he sighed to the media in Italy.
Lessons for Monaco
“I think I didn’t really do well in terms of energy conservation,” he admitted candidly. “I noticed that it also affected my driving style – I simply had less energy. That was certainly a good lesson for my next home race.” After the VSC, Antonelli had ‘high expectations’ for the second part of the race, although he could not have foreseen a technical defect.
“It was definitely not the most fortunate ending,” Antonelli explained. “We were lucky with the VSC, but after a few laps, I felt something was wrong with the accelerator. Then everything went wrong. It’s a shame, of course, but these things happen. Overall, the speed this weekend was quite okay. I learned a lot this weekend and now I’m going to see what I can improve to come out stronger in Monaco,” he concluded optimistically.
