Andrea Kimi Antonelli enjoyed a record-breaking race in the Japanese Grand Prix yet is learning all the time as a Formula 1 driver during the Mercedes star’s rookie campaign.
The Italian had never driven around Suzuka prior to heading to the Japanese GP for the third round of his debut F1 season. But Antonelli overcame his early struggles to build confidence to score points in a third straight Grand Prix with the Mercedes driver’s P6 finish last Sunday.
Antonelli is now the first F1 rookie to score points in their first three Grands Prix since Lewis Hamilton in 2007. At 18 years and 224 days, he is also the youngest driver with a fastest lap and Antonelli broke Max Verstappen’s record as the youngest F1 race leader by three days.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli ‘learned’ he should have asked Mercedes for an aggressive set-up at the Japanese GP
Antonelli was ‘lost’ after practice at the Japanese GP and struggling for confidence at a track he had never raced before last week. But advice from reserve driver Valtteri Bottas ahead of qualifying helped Antonelli work his tyres into the right temperature window for sector one.
Mercedes also changed Antonelli’s set-up before qualifying and those tweaks further helped the Italian build his confidence around Suzuka. So much so, in fact, that Antonelli regrets not being even more aggressive with his set-up in qualifying and aims to change that in Bahrain.
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F1 returns to Sakhir this weekend for the Bahrain Grand Prix after holding pre-testing at the circuit in February. It is the first track that Antonelli will arrive at with some prior experience driving a current generation F1 car at and wants to couple it with what he learned at Suzuka.
Antonelli said, via quotes by Motorsport.com: “The first sector is not easy. You have to find the right timing in all the corners. Also, with the set-up, we started conservatively because I didn’t have confidence.”
“I was getting my confidence back,” he added. “But definitely on the last lap in qualifying, when I had a decent amount of confidence, I probably could have asked the team to push the set-up a bit more to the limit. That’s also something I learned for the next qualifying.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be under increased pressure to perform at the Bahrain Grand Prix
Antonelli could face potentially the most pressure yet to clinch a strong result in the Bahrain GP given the mileage he amassed during F1 testing in February at the Sakhir circuit. The first three rounds of the season were almost gimmes given his lack of experience of those tracks.
But Antonelli convinced ‘everyone’ he’s F1’s ‘next big thing’ with how he adapted to driving Mercedes’ car during testing in Bahrain. He now returns with greater confidence in their car and believing it was a mistake not to be more aggressive with his set-up at Suzuka last week.
Additionally, Jacques Villeneuve praised Antonelli’s slightly ‘odd’ car control at the Japanese GP last weekend after watching the Mercedes rookie around Suzuka. He admired the Italian for taking advantage of the Silver Arrows having a stable car to throw the W16 into corners.
