Struggling F1 rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli seeks redemption, supported by the Mercedes Team. In the Formula 1 world, all drivers experience their share of ups and downs. If, in this case, the driver is a rookie, these ups and downs are more than justified. They’re part of the growth process of a man, firstly, and then of a driver. The Italian rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli is facing his first harsh time in F1.
When Mercedes announced him as the second driver to replace seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, the Italian rookie was aware of facing a great challenge, probably the greatest one in his young career so far. However, Kimi immediately showed great humility and, above all, a fantastic speed on the tracks, which impressed his team positively.
In his first race in Melbourne, he achieved an impressive 4th place thanks to great overtaking in wet conditions. In his third race in Japan, he set his fastest lap to date, thus becoming the youngest driver in F1 history to achieve this feat and surpassing the record previously held by Max Verstappen.
Apart from the race in Bahrain, in the first part of the season, he scored points with remarkable consistency, with the highlight being his achievement of pole position for the sprint race in Miami, making him the youngest driver in history to secure a pole position in any F1 format race. These early successes are a testament to Kimi’s potential and are sure to make us all proud.
However, after Miami, he faced a period of limited results, more due to the machine’s shortcomings than to his youthful mistakes. But in Canada, in a circuit that he faced for the first time, he got his first podium in F1, a landmark in his rookie season. Thanks to that result, the Italian driver became the third youngest driver ever to step onto the podium, behind Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll, as well as the first Italian to achieve this benchmark since Jarno Trulli at the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix. Many journalists believed that this result would be the prelude to many others, but it wasn’t that way. The last two races showed everybody, and Antonelli himself, that ups and downs are a hallmark of an F1 driver’s journey.
In fact, Kimi stated, “I’m not super happy, to be honest, too many zeroes scored. [Since] Canada, I’ve been trying, I’ve been struggling to find some positives, to be honest. It feels like nothing is really working our way, and we just need to focus and reset and try to find the light at the end of the tunnel again because definitely, I’m not going through a nice moment.” In Austria, he collided with Max Verstappen, and this accident resulted in a 3-place penalty for the British GP. In the week leading up to the Silverstone race and especially after it, Toto Wolff supported his driver, admitting that this period could be the really first tough one for the Italian rookie, asserting that “It’s been a rough run since Montreal. Two really subpar races and everybody feels that way on the team, including Kimi. I think, as a team, we need to go back to a baseline. He’s a great driver; there’s a reason why we took him. And as a team, we know what we’re able to achieve and reconcile; we properly reset and then take it from there. There are two more races to go, the Hungarian Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix, and try to bounce back (before the summer break).”
Now, F1 is on its first long vacation, and this period could be helpful for Kimi to reflect on both good results and recent mistakes. Will we find him refreshed after the holidays to face the second part of the Championship? We need to wait until Spa, and we could get the answer.
