29/08/2025 10:10
Kimi Antonelli, despite being mid-way through his rookie season in
Formula 1, left school a few months ago after taking his final
exams in June. The return from the F1 summer break has many
similarities with going back to school at the end of the summer,
but for the Mercedes driver, it has a special flavour, that of
awareness, of the goals to be achieved in the second half of his
maiden season. His campaign began well, with points finishes in
five of the opening six rounds, before a rear suspension upgrade
made the W16 more unstable, something that adversely affected
Antonelli's confidence and cost him critical performance. Aside
from an outlier first podium at the Canadian Grand Prix, the young
Italian would not finish in the top 10 again until the final round
before the summer shutdown, the Hungarian Grand Prix - also the
first weekend Mercedes had reverted to its previous rear
suspension. "I would have liked there to have been another grand
prix after Budapest, before the summer break, to end the first part
of the season with a better performance, but I must say that the
three-week break was useful, not only to relax and clear my mind,
but above all to get a clear idea of how to approach the races from
now until the end of the season," Antonelli explained to
RacingNews365 as part of an Italian media session. "I was able to
analyse the first part of the season and see how, up to a certain
point, that is, until we adopted the [Imola-spec] suspension, it
was a constant crescendo for me, a learning process that bore fruit
from race to race. "Then, with the adoption of the new suspension,
everything changed for me. Even though things went well in Canada,
it was an exception because the Montreal track suited our car very
well, even with the new suspension. "Then, in Austria, it became
clear to me that the behaviour of the W16 with the new suspension
was much more unpredictable, not giving me the confidence I needed
to push hard. I demand a lot from the car, trying to find its
limits, and with the new one, it was difficult to find them, as I
didn't feel the car in the same way as with the previous version."
Looking ahead Antonelli made it clear how crucial confidence is,
especially when entering corners, for drivers to extract maximum
performance from modern-day F1 cars. The insights gained from the
experience with the new suspension will not be lost, however, and
will be used in the detailed design of the 2026 car. "Despite the
negative feedback in terms of confidence, it cannot be said that
the new suspension has not shown any advantages, which could be
realised, perhaps by finding a different compromise in terms of
adjustments and setup," added the 18-year-old. Next year, according
to Antonelli, the driver will play an even more decisive role in
exploiting the car, including in terms of power unit usage,
especially with regard to battery charging, which will play a
crucial role. "I've tried the 2026 car twice on the simulator,
although obviously with a non-definitive PU [power unit]. They seem
like cars that will have very different dynamic behaviour compared
to the current ones," he said. "The weight changes, but above all,
the dimensions change, which, being smaller than now, will make
them much more manoeuvrable and effective in mixed sections.
Performance in those areas will immediately be equal to or even
superior to the 2025 cars. "Then the aerodynamics will be
completely different, partly a return to the previous concept with
a large, flat underbody. They will be very agile and precise". In
short, Antonelli, back from the summer break, could be said to have
consolidated a deep awareness of his own abilities and a clear
vision of the present and the future, not just the immediate
future. All this, coincidentally, can be defined as maturity...
