14/07/2025 19:01
Kimi Antonelli has revealed to approaching his early F1 career with
over-caution after crashing during his first practice appearance
last year. Antonelli was handed his F1 weekend debut at the Italian
Grand Prix 10 months ago, one day before he was confirmed as a
full-time driver for the current season. However, his session
lasted just 10 minutes as he pushed too hard into the final corner
on soft tyres and spun into a barrier. The Italian has since
navigated the initial phase of his career as a full-time driver
warily, as the mistake prompted an approach change to ensure it did
not happen again. "In Canada, I was a bit too conservative,
especially in free practice," Antonelli told the media, including
RacingNews365 "Because if you look at the trend in practice, I
would always arrive quite late to the session. "I would always set
my time quite late in the session, just because it kind of required
many laps to get there. "I truly believe I overcorrected after what
happened in Monza, and now I'm a bit too on the safe side."
Antonelli secured his career-best result last time out in Montreal,
taking to the podium for the first time. The 18-year-old is looking
to use the breakthrough result to take the next step and enter each
race weekend from a place of higher confidence. "Results like this
also help you to move forward and to take the step. Now is the time
to do this step," he said. "Nowadays, F1 is super tight, especially
when you see qualifying, the gaps are just so close that even a
tenth can put you on the back foot. "So it's really important to be
on top of my game, and that's why I cannot keep arriving in
qualifying with so many question marks and not the right confidence
on how much grip there is and having to explore too much and to
learn too much. "Now is the time, especially in practice, to get
back a bit closer to Monza - not exactly like Monza, but get closer
to that to arrive ready in qualifying."
