04/09/2025 15:40
Kimi Antonelli insists he is "much more prepared" for this
weekend's Italian Grand Prix than he was for his home race at Imola
earlier in his rookie F1 season. The 19-year-old endured a
difficult Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in May, which was only the
seventh round of his young career. Having grown up in nearby
Bologna, the Italian driver had a packed schedule, with his
classmates all attending the paddock. Mercedes team principal Toto
Wolff was absent from the round as he was attending his son's
graduation, and it has since been accepted that the Brackley-based
squad and Antonelli misjudged and mismanaged the weekend. The
rigours of the off-track demands left him overworked and ultimately
underprepared for his on-track responsibilities. That burnout,
coupled with an ill-fated and since-discarded rear suspension
upgrade on his W16, saw Antonelli qualify a lowly P13 after he was
eliminated during Q2 in qualifying. He retired from the race itself
with a mechanical issue after a quiet afternoon. However, the
Mercedes driver insists lessons have been learned from that episode
and that he now knows how he must "behave" at Imola. "For sure, I
will be much more prepared," the 19-year-old told media, including
RacingNews365 . "I know much better how I need to move around, how
I need to behave over the race weekend, in order to be able to be
100 percent every time I get in the car." Exorcising his Monza
demons When it was queried with Antonelli would he would do
differently, he focused on how he aims to conserve his energy over
the weekend, something he admits he did not do at Imola. "Well,
definitely when I said I will be more prepared, obviously, it was
my first home race, and there was a lot going [on] around,
especially outside the track," he said. "And I think also my side,
I didn't manage energy the best way, and just going back in the car
not feeling 100 percent, also focus-wise, so I feel like on that
side, I will know much better how to react and how to behave...
"Also trying to manage the energy the best way as possible during
the whole weekend... You run the weekend, and then as you go [on],
and you arrive to Sunday, of course, you have a bit less energy
overall. "But the most important [thing is] that you arrive with
the most amount of energy. I remember being in Imola already from
the Saturday, I was pretty tired. "So yeah, definitely, that was
good learning - I don't want that to happen again." The Italian
driver has suffered through a difficult period and has scored just
one point on European turf this season. With a Mercedes contract
extension imminent, he will hope to exorcise the demons of his
practice crash at Monza 12 months ago with a strong weekend in
front of his home crowd.
