Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s debut captured much of the attention on the first day of the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix. The 18-year-old Italian talent drove George Russell’s Mercedes W15 in the first free practice session, but his stint lasted just over 10 minutes.
After a series of laps on the Soft tyres and getting faster and faster, when he reached the parabolica, Kimi lost the rear of his W15, ending up crashing violently into the barriers.
The team estimated an impact of around 46G, which was also considered considerable by George Russell, who was following the Italian from the pits. At the end of the day, Toto Wolff gave an overview of what happened, but also of what the team does and has done to support him after an accident that could have repercussions in terms of morale.
“Physically he’s fine. The impact was 46G. I asked our George Russell if that was a lot. He said ‘considerably’. So, it was a significant impact. Now he has to get over it and digest it, because obviously it’s a setback for him personally, but not for us.”
“First of all, you have to admit that what happened was quite a special case for him. He had an hour of time that he could have used. But before the session I also told him: “If you are interested in the first free practice, do your best job possible, drive the car as you like”. Then he exaggerated. I prefer a driver to be slower than faster, because the second hypothesis is not possible”.
“The pressure is obviously enormous, but he has always had to deal with it because he has always been labelled as a prodigy since go-karting, then he won all the junior series he entered in his first year, which is very unusual. It only happens to the best. And then he does his first free practice here in Monza. The whole country is on its feet and, of course, he will have put a lot of pressure on himself. We tried to prevent that from happening somehow. We didn’t succeed, but the most important thing is that he is OK and that the car can be assembled for George and everything else is water under the bridge,”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Antonelli, during the few laps he managed to do, recorded very important data despite being a rookie. Just think of the best passage in the second gear of Lesmo, where he signed a minimum speed of 184 km/h, this means 7 kilometers per hour faster than Max Verstappen, who in Free Practice 1 obtained the best time.
But that’s not all, because Antonelli also signed a speed of 190 km/h at Ascari, while Verstappen did not go beyond 176 km/h in his fastest lap. Wolff recognized all this, perhaps also to keep him up.
“I’ve known him since he was eleven years old, when he first joined us. In the team we say: ‘The difficult days are the ones our competitors should fear, because that’s when we learn the most’. And this is certainly one of those moments for him today. He went out and took flight from the first lap. No one has been able to repeat some of the speeds from the cornering session.”
“Our chief engineer Andrew Shovlin said he only drove what the car can’t do, and maybe we need to take a slightly different approach in practice when he gets the next opportunity and say, ‘Understand the track, feel the limit.’ On the other hand, we also want a driver who approaches from the top rather than slowly working towards his goal and that’s why we love him.”
Antonelli, after the session with Mercedes, acknowledged that he had taken the wrong approach during his first laps: It was quite an intense day, I did my first FP1, unfortunately they ended quite quickly, I pushed too much for the conditions and I should have pushed progressively anyway, instead I immediately looked for the limit and unfortunately I crashed”.
“It was quite a big impact, around 46 lateral Gs, yes, I’m not feeling great at the moment, I’ll go back to the hotel to rest and prepare for the rest of the weekend, but I thank Mercedes for the opportunity they gave me and I apologise to the whole team and especially to George for the accident. Now let’s try to focus on F2 and have a good weekend”.
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