The sixth place secured by Kimi Antonelli in Japan carries much more weight than the result in Shanghai, also thanks to the disqualifications of the two Ferraris. The Suzuka weekend was quite feared: Antonelli completed his first laps on one of the most technical tracks on the calendar only on Friday morning, and the first approach wasn’t the best.
“I felt a bit lost,” Kimi admitted at the end of the day. The analysis work done in the evening with the engineers, and the feedback from Saturday morning’s FP3 session, turned the weekend around, confirmed by the sixth-place result in qualifying.
“It was a big click,” Kimi Antonelli confirmed. “I’m starting to feel the car more and more in qualifying and that allows me to push.” Then came the race, with the first 18 laps spent behind George Russell. When George pitted early, Antonelli stayed out, able to run in clean air and managing the medium tyres up to lap 31, even giving himself ten laps in the lead—the youngest driver ever to lead a Grand Prix.
“We changed plans,” he explained. “The stop was originally scheduled for mid-race, but since the pace was improving lap after lap, we decided to stay out.” During this phase, Kimi Antonelli hoped for a safety car—it would have been a wildcard to seize immediately. “At one point I even saw a few drops of rain on my visor,” he confessed. “I really hoped it would rain, but at the same time I can’t complain because today was a really great experience. In clean air it’s another story, and more importantly, I completed a good stint on the hards.”
Once he switched to the hardest compound, Antonelli began pushing hard, initially holding off Lewis Hamilton’s pressure and quickly pulling away. In this phase, Kimi was the fastest driver on track, gaining ten seconds on Russell and finishing the race with the fastest lap—setting another record for youngest driver in the process.
“In the second stint I pushed really hard. Now I feel like I can play more with the car, and that’s something I couldn’t do in the past two weekends, simply because I was more tense while driving. Lap after lap I’m gaining more experience with the different tyre compounds and with the car itself, and that helps a lot.”
Antonelli’s growth curve is clearly pointing upward, and the next weekend will be on familiar ground—the Sakhir circuit, where pre-season testing was held last February. “I’ll approach the weekend with more confidence,” Kimi admitted. “I already know the track, so I’ll definitely feel more comfortable with the car, and most importantly, I won’t have to spend time learning a new circuit.”
After his first three Formula 1 weekends, Kimi Antonelli remains fifth in the standings with thirty points—a surprising haul for a driver still in a learning phase, and that’s the aspect Mercedes is appreciating most.
The development process continues, but in the meantime, Kimi is scoring points and not leaving anything on the table—a start to the season (and to his F1 career) that is going beyond the already high expectations.
“I’m very lucky to have a teammate like George because he constantly pushes me to improve; it’s a great motivation,” Antonelli concluded, underlining an important point. At Suzuka, for the first time, Russell saw the shape of Kimi in his mirrors at the chequered flag…
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