Imola GP 2025: the seventh round of the F1 season represents much more than a simple calendar stop for Antonelli. It’s his home race, a dream nurtured since his first karting experiences. Kimi arrives here after a great weekend in Florida, where he showed he was very close to his teammate through two solid qualifying sessions and a mature race, evidencing clear progress in all performance areas.
Kimi Antonelli builds on experience from early races
On push laps, Kimi has already proven to be quick, understanding after the first few rounds how to properly bring the tyres into the right window during the preparation lap. In earlier qualifying sessions, he had admitted struggling to fully exploit the tyres, losing about a tenth and a half to Russell in cornering because he wasn’t getting all the grip the compounds could offer.
In Miami, he made the most of a very well-balanced car when pushed to the limit, able to keep the tyres within the ideal operating window for an entire lap. On the other hand, the British car still lacks somewhat in race pace — an issue the engineers are also focusing on. But finding that “sweet spot” where the car consistently works at its best remains very difficult.
To address this issue, the Brackley drivers have averaged more race-pace simulation laps per weekend than their rivals. This allowed the team to devise tyre management strategies capable of optimising race pace. From this perspective, until the anticipated updates scheduled for Imola, Mercedes has been somewhat short-handed in long runs.
Kimi’s simulator preparation
Antonelli has developed solid skills in managing the compounds, having to extract performance from a car struggling with overheating. Kimi spent extensive time in the simulator for Imola, focusing on every technical aspect of the track. The preparation was meticulous: thousands of simulated variables, hundreds of virtual laps completed, and about ten setups selected to be tested on track during free practice.
Unlike Miami’s sprint format, the classic weekend returns in Italy, with three free practice sessions available. This will allow the Italian to gradually build confidence with the car and find the right technical direction. The Emilia track is known for its technical complexity: banked corners, heavy braking zones, and alternating slow sections that require an extremely well-balanced setup.
For the Bologna-born driver, it will be crucial to turn the preparation work into real on-track performance. The updates expected for the Italian round will need to be correctly interpreted. That’s why the Brackley team has built its approach primarily on correlating simulator data with track findings and progressively improving performance throughout the practice sessions.
Kimi eyes the podium by leveraging tyres and updates
Specifically, the Italian will focus on managing race pace rather than on single-lap performance. The W16, with the updates announced by James Allison, aims to improve balance in medium-speed corners, allowing drivers to push in these sections without excessively stressing the tyres. For qualifying, however, the Italian will need to learn to better exploit the new Pirelli C6 compounds.
All these efforts converge towards achieving a clear yet unspoken goal: aiming for his first career podium in front of his home crowd. To achieve it, Antonelli will need to outperform at least two top-level rivals. The first is obviously George Russell, the more experienced teammate he has yet to beat in a race, and a reference point within the Mercedes garage.
The second is Max Verstappen, who has historically done well at Imola, especially thanks to strong fine-tuning over the weekend — a key strength Red Bull has demonstrated at the Santerno circuit. However, the Dutch champion could once again be slowed by an unstable front end, which might unbalance the car. Furthermore, such a bumpy track surface could pose issues for the Milton Keynes car.
Leave a Reply