Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been in Mercedes’ simulator preparing for the Japanese Grand Prix with the Italian rookie to race at Suzuka for the first time this weekend.
The 18-year-old has never previously experienced the iconic home of the Japanese GP, and will take his first real-life laps of Suzuka during FP1 this Friday. Antonelli was due to join the Japanese Super Formula for an end-of-year test at Suzuka last December but he fell unwell.
Suzuka will now pose a fresh challenge for the teenager amidst his rookie Formula 1 season after Mercedes picked Antonelli to replace seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. He has so far shown lots of promise with P4 on debut in Australia and P6 in China (another new track).
Andrea Kimi Antonelli admits Suzuka’s chicanes are ‘even scary in Mercedes’ simulator’
His results in Melbourne and Shanghai also now see that ‘everyone’ at Mercedes is excited to work with Antonelli. He stood out in the changeable conditions at the Australian GP and climbed from P16 on the grid to P4 before also managing floor damage in the Chinese GP.
Antonelli will now be hoping for a much easier time at the Japanese GP as he adapts to the renowned Suzuka circuit for the first time. The Bologna boy has zero doubts that it will feel ‘crazy’ to lap the Honda-owned track after getting a taste of Suzuka in Mercedes’ simulator.
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Just driving around Suzuka in Mercedes’ simulator was also an intimidating occasion for the Italian as Antonelli found the Japanese GP track’s fast chicanes ‘scary’. It is likely that he was referring to the iconic Esses given the circuit only has one true chicane at the end of the lap.
“I’ve been driving in Suzuka because it’s going to be my first time driving it,” Antonelli told The Fast and The Curious. “Man, it’s a freaking cool track.
“It’s even a bit scary in the sim when you do the fast chicanes. I can only imagine the first lap in real life with the feeling of speed and everything, it’s going to feel crazy. Oh my god!”
Damon Hill thought Suzuka was ‘going to kill you’ despite his Japanese GP success
Antonelli is far from alone in finding Suzuka to be an intimidating circuit as even Damon Hill has called Suzuka ‘scary’. The 1996 F1 champion who sealed his title at that year’s Japanese GP recently admitted that he thought, ‘This is going to kill you’, amidst Hill’s visits to Suzuka.
“The only track that used to put the fear of God into me was Suzuka,” Hill noted in his book Lights Out, Full Throttle. “It was always known as being a very technical track and quite difficult, but what I hadn’t appreciated was just how fast and scary it was.
“Half of my brain was saying, this is going to kill you, Damon, and when your brain tells you there’s danger ahead, the natural response is to attempt to remove yourself from the situation. The other half of my brain was saying go for it.”
Suzuka was still a strong track for Hill, and Antonelli plus Mercedes will hope he can also do well at the Japanese GP ahead of the Italian’s first visit this weekend. Hill won the Japanese GP in 1994 and 1996 for Williams, and even called time on his F1 career at Suzuka in 1999.
How the Italian adapted to a new circuit at the Chinese GP should also encourage the Silver Arrows. Despite having an hour of practice as it was a Sprint weekend, Antonelli qualified in P7 for the Sprint plus P8 for the main race after issues getting the tyres in the right window.
Mercedes believe Antonelli should have fought Max Verstappen in the Chinese GP, too, if it were not for running over the endplate from Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari on Lap 1. The damage removed enough rear downforce to cost Antonelli two to three-tenths of a second per lap.
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