Andrea Kimi Antonelli talks about letting out emotions in the period of struggle in his short F1 career, as he goes behind the scenes on his mindset.
Everyone felt a bit sad for Mercedes’ Antonelli after the Belgian GP weekend when things were not going right for the Italian. Since the Miami weekend when he had pole, the youngster has just two points finishes, which includes maiden F1 podium in Canada, in eight rounds.
In fact, he has retired out in four out of those right rounds. His confidence nosedived as Antonelli explained when talking to media. It was down to the update from Mercedes, which didn’t work. It hurt the Italian more due to his aggressive style of driving and lack of experience.
George Russell faced similar issues, but could manage to stick things together due to his experience. Antonelli suffered, meanwhile, and eventually admitted in the media about being low on confidence. The Italian feels it was the right thing to do, as sometimes it is better to let it out.
“Yeah, for sure, I mean, I think it’s sometimes the best way is to just let it all out and instead of keeping it for yourself because I think in some cases it’s just going to hurt even more,” said Antonelli to media. “So, I think I was very frustrated with my performances because I feel like the potential is just so much higher and that’s what I’ve been showing. So, definitely I was really frustrated and it was a good moment to let it all out and definitely made me feel much better afterwards.”
In his short F1 career, Antonelli hasn’t faced this kind of dip in his performances. He had the FP1 crash last year in Monza but it was before his time as a full-time driver. Now in his first full season, form matters a lot more along with confidence in the car in the fight for points.
He agrees it has been hard in the last few races, but he sees his confidence growing now, especially after the performance in Hungary where Mercedes returned to the old suspension and it gave confidence to both Antonelli to finish in points and Russell to be on the podium.
“Well, for sure it’s, I think I made a very clear point to myself especially after Spa qualifying that, I wasn’t delivering, especially like I wanted,” said Antonelli. “If I look at the first six races, it was looking very positive, having a nice progression and I was feeling good in the car. To be honest, after Miami I got my first pole and the race, there was something to fix.
“I didn’t drive the best in the race but still I was coming off the weekend with really high confidence and then since Imola I’ve been doing backwards steps. And, in Spa, I mean, I really looked inside myself and I made a clear point that, with this suspension I was not able to deliver as I could previously and that probably also I didn’t adapt the best way to extract the best performance out of the car.
“So, I made the point that, at the moment I was not performing the best and it was hard to accept, it’s hard to accept these kind of things but it’s also, I think, it’s good for yourself because it also helps you to set goals and also to try and improve yourself and work on yourself even harder. So, I think it was not easy but I think on the other side it’s helpful because it helps you to refocus and to work harder on yourself even more.
“After Hungary, definitely, the car has been much stronger and it gave me a lot more confidence, I was able to push more. I was able to go long, also because the car was giving me quite good confidence and I was able to defend, so definitely a step forward. I can build from this, especially the pace is coming back, the feeling is coming back and definitely I can work on from here and get better,” summed up Antonelli.
Teammate Russell felt for his young teammate, but the Brit didn’t wish to judge Antonelli on the basis of last few weekends when he knows that the car was not upto the mark. Even in this period, he says the Italian has been close to him and not fully down and out, as he is making it look like.
“I think as a young driver, you have got to look at it objectively, which is, in terms of his own personal performance, you can argue he is performing better than he did at the start of the year, when you look at the deficit in terms of lap time, it is just the differences,” said Russell to media. “In Canada, when we were on pole, he was in fourth place, over half a second behind.
“And in Spa, he was only three times behind me, but that was the difference between out in Q1, or getting through to Q3, so the team have made it very clear, he should not worry about those results, he still did a very good job considering his experience, and it is the car that has brought us both backwards, so that is of course very difficult to accept, when you are in that position, but it is never easy when the car is not performing as you expect.”
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