Miami, Florida – Each rookie driver in Formula 1 has large shoes to fill, but some shoes are larger than most.
Like the shoes of a pilot champion seven times and one of the living legends of sport.
But that is the situation in which the young Kimi Antonelli was found when Mercedes appointed him as the replacement of Lewis Hamilton, when one of the best sport pilots made the shocking movement to Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season. The task of entering those Antonelli shoes has made admirular points, scoring in four of the first five race weekends of the 2025 campaign. When the grid arrives in Florida for the Miami Grand Prix, Antonelli is sixth in the classification of the drivers, a place ahead of the driver he replaced.
The rookie driver accredited his growing confidence as a reason for his strong beginning on Thursday in Miami.
“Well, it is definitely a new track and it also looks quite complicated. Obviously is Sprint’s weekend, so only a practice and then the Sprint rating,” Antonelli began when he met with the media, including the media, even SB nationThursday.
“So obvious it’s a bit different to what i’ve bone used to in Jeddah or Bahrain, but i think scholause of the fact i’m getting more confidence with the car weekend by weekend, i think it’s gonna i bleed bull to Speed and just to spect to Speed and Just To Speed and Just To Speed and To Speed and Bee To Speed and To Speed and Bee To Speed and Bee Ted To Speed and Bee Ted To Speed and To Speed and Bee Ted To Speed and To Speed and To Speed and To Speed and In Speed and to establish and to accelerate and in speed and establish and accelerate and accelerate and in speed and establish and in the speed and finger of the foot to accelerate Establish accelerating and carrying at the speed and bee to accelerate, pushing it to the limit. “
Antonelli admitted that he is still looking to achieve the right balance between obtaining his laps and finding the absolute limit of the W16 every race weekend.
“Or of course, I am not where I want to be in terms of driving and leading to the limit, but every weekend I feel that I am taking a step forward,” Antonelli continued. “Tomorrow the song will also be dirty, so it will be a unique session, I think it will be real.
“If the course, I think it will not be easy, but I think we can still offer a good result.”
Antonelli also talked about the proper balance of aggression. Early in the day, Oliver Bearman talked about how one of the difficult things he has found when adapting to life in F1 is to find exactly where the limits are and how much the car can push. Bearman talked about how his year reached a difficult beginning in the opening race of the season in Australia, and how he had to “learn in the difficult way” to achieve that balance.
Antonelli described how he feels in the same way.
“Well, I had to learn in the difficult way too.” I think you know what I am talking about, “said Mercedes’s rookie, referring to his rookie session last year in Monza, where he has turned the wall of George Russell.
“I feel that, you know, this approach is good, but you really must be careful with your mentality because if you tell yourself, ‘I will start easy, I will only slowly enter the ritete,” I think it really is not really.
“Or of course, you want to accumulate, but you already want to start with a good level of thrust because if you start too far, then it is very difficult to catch up.
“So I think it is important to have the right approach, but very important to have the right mentality also with the way you take the session.”
Antonelli then discussed the format of this weekend, which is the second F1 Sprint race of the 2025 campaign. He was asked what format he prefers: the standard race weekend with three practice sessions or a Sprint F1 race with a single practice session before the F1 Sprint qualification, and Mercedes’s rookie joked saying that this response could in the results.
“If it goes wrong, probably because the normal weekend with the three practice sessions,” Antonelli began with a smile.
However, he observed that driving in Formula 2, where there was a single practice session before qualifying, has prepared it well for F1 Sprint weekends.
“As I said, you know, last year it was always this. A free practice and then directly to the qualification, and it was always Reagh because in F2 we go with the hardest complex and then in the geeing geeping qualification he thinks he really also helps for these Sprint weekends,” Antonelli described.
“If the course, driving in F1 is very different and requires more effort and is more difficult on some sides, but I think F2 prepares it well for this child or weekend,” Mercedes’s rookie continued. “Because, especially, it prepares you to try to be on the limit, from FP1, which, you know, I really did not do it so far. But it is something that I really want to do, from this race onwards, because I think it can really help for the rest of the weekend.”
In the end, however, everything returns to his trust.
“Yes, I mean, every weekend I have more confidence in the car, more aware of what the car is capable and also more aware of configuration changes,” Antonelli added.
Tomorrow you will see the young driver try to gain even more confidence, in the only practice session before the F1 Sprint qualification here in Miami.
SB nation It will be on the floor for the entire Miami Grand Prix, so check our transmission of the story throughout the week to completely charge!
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