Team principal Toto Wolff<\/a> realised before the campaign started that Antonelli would have a tricky task on his hands.<\/p>\n Wolff tried to temper expectations around Antonelli before the season started<\/a>, but there have been moments of brilliance, such as his Sprint Race pole position in Miami and his podium finish at the Canadian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Antonelli\u2019s run-up to the summer break was far from ideal and showed Mercedes the perils of putting a rookie in such a pressurised situation.<\/p>\n Position Drivers’ Championship PointsPts 1 284 2 275 3 187 4 172 5 151 6 109 7 64 8 54 9 37 10 27 <\/p>\n Mechanical failures in Imola and Barcelona, a qualifying crash in Monaco, and two Q1 exits at Spa have seen Antonelli cut adrift in the drivers\u2019 championship<\/a> from the top six drivers.<\/p>\n Antonelli has now spoken about his preparations for the season and how Mercedes put him through his paces.<\/p>\n Before making his debut, Antonelli did thousands of kilometres of testing<\/a>, but the team put him in a far more uncomfortable position before the campaign started.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats<\/a><\/p>\n In an interview with Crash<\/a>, Antonelli described taking part in mock press conferences with journalists.<\/p>\n He explained: \u201cDefinitely, I\u2019ve been doing a lot of media training.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the start of the year, she brought me into a studio, it was in London, and we\u2019ve been doing like a simulation of press conferences, TV pen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was external, it was [with] people that were complete strangers. I had cameras on me and so on. It was a cool day because after every interview, I was re-watching them as well, which is something I completely hate. I don\u2019t like re-watching my interviews; it was hard to do it.<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the same time, it was useful as well to understand a bit [about] my body language and how I interact. When I was trackside, they were getting me to do interviews, activities, and appearances, all just to get an understanding of what I have to do, other than driving during a race weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of work going on before the season, already from last year, also to prepare myself outside the track.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 Team from team principal to lineage<\/a><\/p>\n Antonelli has been involved in several official press conferences, as well as doing the more impromptu interviews that are a key part of each race weekend.<\/p>\n![\"Andrea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2227251860-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Kym Illman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n