Kimi Antonelli Still Has Mercedes F1’s Faith Mark Sutton – Formula 1 – Getty Images
Friday in Azerbaijan was a big test for Mercedes F1 rookie Kimi Antonelli, especially in the wake of team boss Toto Wolff’s description of his Italian GP performance as “underwhelming.” After costly visits to gravel traps in FP1 in Zandvoort and FP2 in Monza compromised his race weekends, the rookie couldn’t afford a practice mistake at an unforgiving street circuit that over the years has caught out even the very best drivers.
Not only did the teenager survive his first day in an F1 car in Baku without any major mishaps, he also set the fourth fastest time in the FP2 session, just 0.009 of a second shy of his Mercedes team mate George Russell.
After a few difficult months that saw him score just three points in the last six races, it was both a confidence-boosting performance and a timely reminder of his talent. Not that his Mercedes colleagues needed one – despite a few blips, they have always remained convinced that he’s the real deal, and a future superstar.
One of the men who works most closely with Antonelli on a day-to-day basis is Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, who helped the likes of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton to World Championship titles.
“In terms of summing it up, if we looked at the opening races, he amassed almost all of his points in that first part of the season,” Shovlin told Road & Track when asked about Antonelli’s year to date. “And he was performing better, in many ways, better than we expected. You always know when you’re bringing a driver into F1 this rapidly that there’s going to be bumps in the road. And over the course of the European season, he was finding it harder to qualify well. Some of that is because the mid-grid has moved closer to us, and qualifying is a pretty cruel and unforgiving session these days. And then there were a couple of mistakes where he lost free practice time, having ended up in gravel traps.”
Mark Sutton – Formula 1 – Getty Images
Nevertheless, the team saw enough positives early on to remain confident in his ultimate potential. In effect, he had bought himself some time.
“You can still look at the first part of the season,” said Shovlin. “And we’re not talking about one race that he fluked, we’re talking about some strong qualifying performances, some extremely strong race performances, a very good handling of a wet race in Melbourne to finish fourth. And we just need to work with him to try and get back to that level of comfort that he had in the car. But as I said, in qualifying there’s a lot more pressure when you know that it’s difficult to get out of Q1 even, and very difficult to get out of Q2. And then you’ve got to have tyres left for Q3.”
The two recent Friday mistakes didn’t do Antonelli any favors, and were highlighted to the media by a disappointed Wolff. However, Shovlin revealed that the team hadn’t helped the youngster, at least in the first instance, by compromising his pre-weekend preparations back at the factory.
“With Zandvoort, he came in for a simulator session, and we had some issues,” said Shovlin. “That meant he wasn’t really able to do the prep there. He then makes a mistake in FP1. Well, I think we need to own a bit of that responsibility in that we couldn’t do the normal prep.”
The team left nothing to chance in readying him for this weekend in Baku.
“He was with us last week and did a very big day doing two or three race distances, or equivalent mileage of that, preparing here. And as I said, he’s shown us enough in the early part of the season to confirm our expectations that he had the talent to be in F1, and be with Mercedes. But there’s no doubt that after a string of poor performances and not scoring at the rate that George is, the pressure builds, and we’ve just got to help him manage that pressure.”
Joe Portlock – Getty Images
As Shovlin noted, the team knew that there would be ups and downs in Antonelli’s rookie year, despite the extensive preparation that he underwent with private testing of older cars. The engineers are continuing to work on his learning curve.
“We did a lot of development driving with Kimi,” he said. “It’s hard to know where the problems will come. Will it be a problem on a race start? Will it be a mistake in qualifying that puts you under pressure? Will it be losing a free practice session because you went off the track? You can’t really predict those. We’re always working with him. We’ve upped the amount of preparation that we’re doing recently. We’re trying different things in terms of getting ready for the race weekends, going into these remaining races. And we’ll just keep reviewing until we until we get it right. And he will develop with every race that he does.”
With the help of Mercedes, Shovlin is confident that Antonelli will blossom in 2026.
“Often with young drivers, you see the big steps going into their second year, when they’re suddenly going to all the circuits for the second time,” he said. “Some of these tracks, he’s either never driven them, or he’s driven them in an F2 car or an F4 car, and you’re up against people with years and years of experience in F1. So it is always challenging for rookie drivers. And as I said, we just keep reviewing our process and modifying it. And we’ll get there.”
You Might Also Like