Kimi Antonelli targets Imola breakthrough with Mercedes: “I know these tracks by heart”. Kimi Antonelli heads to Imola full of confidence after his strongest F1 weekend yet.

The young Italian talent has just completed his best Formula 1 weekend so far in Miami. Andrea Kimi Antonelli is ready to do even better in the upcoming race at Imola. Despite having only a few races under his belt in the top series, and despite skipping F3, the eighteen-year-old’s lap times are already close to those of teammate George Russell. It’s an impressive learning curve that shows all the skills of Mercedes’ rookie driver.

Kimi took his first pole position on the Miami circuit, even though it was for the Sprint race. What made this result stand out was the fact that the Italian didn’t know the track and hadn’t yet done a single lap on the soft tyre before the one that earned him pole position. During the race, his pace was very competitive and in line with George Russell’s, who benefited from the Virtual Safety Car.

Kimi Antonelli sends a message to rivals
Kimi Antonelli is gaining more and more experience, and with the Imola round begins a series of tracks he knows by heart. He already drove on this circuit with Mercedes during testing last season, allowing him to absorb a significant amount of data. During the summer rounds, he will also face tracks where he raced in F2 and in junior categories, and this aspect will help bridge the experience gap with the other drivers.

“In Miami I felt good in FP1 and was able to push the car to the limit. I think it’s essentially a matter of experience and confidence. Having a week off after the triple-header helped me a lot to digest all the information. I’m starting to understand how to extract performance from the tyres over the whole lap, which I wasn’t doing very well before.” – the Italian driver pointed out ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

“There is still a lot of room for improvement, but I feel better with the car from race to race. Finally, after this weekend, we’re going to European tracks I know very well. I hope to maintain the same pace or go even faster.” In this way, Kimi Antonelli warns his rivals and his teammate of what could come in the next GPs. Even in Formula 2, we saw a much stronger second half of the season compared to the beginning, when he needed time to adapt to the category.