Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed a career-best second within the 2025 Method 1 Brazil Grand Prix, though this was considerably overshadowed by his function in a tangle with Oscar Piastri wherein the Australian was controversially hit with a 10-second penalty.
Whereas Antonelli’s inexperience has proven on some events this 12 months, he has been spectacular and aggressive all through – and his potential has been masked to some extent by automotive points after Mercedes adopted a rear-suspension geometry it later determined to drop.
The respect Antonelli has earned amongst his friends was clear when no much less an eminence than four-time world champion Max Verstappen made some extent of congratulating him on the Interlagos podium. Later, when requested what recommendation he would give to a driver in Antonelli’s place, Verstappen was clear.
“Hold believing in your self,” he mentioned. “In a rookie season, you undergo fairly an emotional rollercoaster at occasions. Some weekends go higher than others. Typically you have got excessive hopes, typically that does not work out.
“You make errors. You might have good weekends. However on the finish of the day, that is all a part of the training curve. It’s a must to make errors additionally to change into a greater driver, even in Method 1.”
Drama has attended Antonelli’s season like a Greek refrain, starting with a gap weekend wherein he was eradicated from Q1 in Australia however raced to fourth place in troublesome and altering circumstances. He claimed his first pole place for the dash race in Miami, however the center portion of the season was blighted by an absence of rear-end really feel after Mercedes shifted to the brand new suspension geometry.
Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Picture by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Photographs through Getty Photographs
Canada, the place team-mate George Russell gained and Antonelli completed third, was an outlier outcome which owed a lot to that circuit’s traits: many of the braking is completed in a straight line and the corners are comparatively sluggish. However it delayed the group’s choice to revert to the earlier rear suspension geometry, precipitating Antonelli’s worst weekend of the 12 months, in Belgium.
There, he was lowered to tears after being eradicated from the primary portion of qualifying for each the dash and the grand prix. At Spa it was Lewis Hamilton who got here ahead to place an arm round Antonelli’s shoulder.
Antonelli’s headline outcomes have improved since Hungary, but there were those who felt he was at least partially responsible for the Turn-1 fracas in Sao Paulo which led to Charles Leclerc being eradicated from the race. On the restart following an early Security Automobile deployment, Antonelli was sluggish to speed up and needed to cope with Piastri trying a cross on the within whereas Leclerc took the surface line.
It has been claimed in varied retailers that Antonelli was within the “unsuitable” gear for the restart – third, whereas Piastri and Leclerc had been in second – however the information signifies a extra advanced image. All three drivers had been overlapping brake and throttle to take care of tyre and brake temperatures and Piastri was merely capable of get totally on the throttle sooner, whereas Antonelli needed to feather it twice alongside the principle straight to quell wheelspin.
Quite extra subjective is the sequence of occasions within the seconds resulting in the second the place Piastri locked his brakes and pushed Antonelli into Leclerc: the stewards judged Piastri totally at fault, therefore the penalty, whereas Leclerc made the astute commentary that Antonelli turned in to the nook as if the McLaren weren’t already there.
“I feel to this point this 12 months for Kimi has been an enormous studying curve,” mentioned Verstappen. “However on the identical time he is very quick. I all the time noticed that from each class that he was racing in. And for him to have a weekend like he had right here – it was simply tremendous robust.
“He totally, in fact, deserved to be on this podium at this time, and it additionally provides you confidence increase. The group, in fact, can be serving to him quite a bit to actually exploit all of the potential out of him. So he is in an excellent place.”
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