{"id":129879,"date":"2025-05-25T05:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T05:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129879\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T05:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T05:36:12","slug":"kimi-antonelli-defended-despite-finger-wagging-for-inviting-his-pals-to-f1-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129879\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli defended despite finger-wagging for inviting his pals to F1 grand prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

A passionate defence has been launched for Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a> who was criticised for inviting his friends to an F1 grand prix.<\/p>\n

Mercedes<\/a>\u2019 talented rookie Antonelli was surrounded by his classmates last weekend at Imola, his first F1 race on home soil in Italy.<\/p>\n

It was a reminder of his tender age, and that he is balancing Formula 1 with his exams.<\/p>\n

But Jacques Villeneuve didn\u2019t look kindly upon it,\u00a0saying \u201cyou shouldn\u2019t do that\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This weekend at the F1 <\/a>Monaco Grand Prix, Sky Sports\u2019 Ted Kravitz reported: \u201cThe interesting thing for me; [Antonelli] said that his preparation for his home race at Imola last time out was the wrong way to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been open and admitted that \u2018I know what I did wrong, and I will change for my next home race at Monza\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJacques felt it was the wrong way to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cKimi has admitted his preparation wasn\u2019t right. When he stepped into the car for the first time at Imola, he felt he wasn\u2019t best prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimi Antonelli defended for bringing mates to F1 paddock \"Kimi <\/p>\n

Kimi Antonelli<\/p>\n

David Croft had his say: \u201cIt\u2019s a rookie season for a reason. You learn from that rookie season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he finally hangs his gloves up and retires – which I hope is in many, many years to come – Kimi will look back at his first race in Italy and say \u2018wasn\u2019t it great to have my mates there, my classmates there, it was a special moment\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karun Chandhok looked to Mercedes and said: \u201cThe team needs to help him with that. They have the experience of how to manage the drivers\u2019 time and energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a constant debate about what\u2019s right for sponsors, and media commitments, and what\u2019s best for the driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jenson Button provided another defence for Antonelli.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine he missed meetings,\u201d Button insisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because we saw a photo, it doesn\u2019t mean he was hanging out with them all weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tricky one. It\u2019s about what it does to a driver mentally, having everyone there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t think his time with his team was any different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Button remembered feeling distracted in his first F1 grand prix on home soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, but it wasn\u2019t having my friends there which was the issue. I was busy with sponsors,\u201d he remembered.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first British Grand Prix, in 2000, I finished fifth and I had my friends there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hanging out in [Patrick Head\u2019s] office drinking something nice. He came up, when we were there having fun and being loud, he shook his head and walked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to enjoy those moments with friends and loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A passionate defence has been launched for Andrea Kimi Antonelli who was criticised for inviting his friends to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,35357,4859,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-129879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-kimi-antonelli","12":"tag-mercedes","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114566855693515139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}