Mercedes will apply lessons from Kimi Antonelli’s exhausting home race at Imola last weekend for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza after admitting its Formula 1 rookie was “toast as early as Friday”.
Antonelli, for whom Imola is his local track as he comes from Bologna, had a large following in attendance at last week’s event with friends, family and supporters who Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said all “wanted to have a little bit of Kimi”.
It turned into a disappointing performance with Antonelli qualifying 13th and while he was on for a good race result, helped by a well-timed virtual safety car, before a throttle problem led to his first F1 retirement.
In Monaco this week, Antonelli admitted that he had ended up devoting too much time and energy to off-track distractions, and could feel it impacting him negatively in the car.
Wolff, who did not attend the Imola race, described it as a “learning process” and referenced the error Mercedes felt it made last year as well when it gave Antonelli his first official FP1 outing at Italy’s other F1 race at Monza and he crashed on his second flying lap.
“We concluded last year that we've made a mistake in maybe exposing him in Monza in his first ever running in FP1 to the local crowds and he wanted to perform particularly well,” Wolff said.
“Then Imola I think was a perfect storm, it's where he lives, it's his home track, school, family, local football club, all the people that helped throughout his career wanted to have a little bit of Kimi.
“Even as early as Friday he was just toast. I spoke to him on Saturday, he said 'I'm out of energy of all of this'.
“It's clear he's young, he wants to say thank you to everyone who participated. He doesn't want to be unfriendly to friends, family, fans, all them around.
“The guidance I gave to him, at a certain stage you need to be, you need to protect yourself.
“Hide yourself in your engineering room on the Sunday, everything else just comes second.
“All of us together, the family, we realised that was too much and that is a mistake we will not repeat.”
Antonelli had gone into the Imola weekend off the back of slightly underwhelming race results in Miami, but also the high of scoring his first pole position in the sprint and qualifying third for the grand prix himself.
He has generally set a good foundation for his rookie season and was starting to show grander flashes of the pace that has Mercedes convinced he is a future world champion.
But Antonelli described Imola as a “very intense and very demanding” weekend mentally and felt he didn’t manage it “the best on my side”.
“I feel like I didn't do a good enough job and I could feel it when going in the car,” Antonelli said.
“Definitely I could feel mentally I was not as present as I usually was and I wasn't as focused.
“But it's not because I was thinking about anything else. It was just when you're a bit mentally tired, it's also hard to keep the focus.
“So, definitely I feel on that side I didn't manage myself, my energy super well and I couldn't also perform on track like I wanted.
“Obviously it was a very disappointing weekend on my side.
“It was a big lesson learned - especially ahead of the next home race, which is going to be Monza, but ahead of the next races in general.
“I also had some time off just to reset a little bit and to recharge ahead of this weekend because I think it is important to bounce back.”
Mercedes has worked hard to prepare Antonelli for his rookie season in off-track activities like media work and marketing commitments, as these are often extracurricular demands that catch young drivers out when they first step into F1.
But Antonelli stressed the Imola difficulty was not a result of team sponsor activities, as he knew it would be busier than usual, he just spent more time with friends and guests “and then not having enough energy left for the driving, which obviously was the most important bit”.
“It was not really about the team's activities, but was more about myself,” he said.
“How I managed it with of course, people who came to watch, which of course we invited because obviously it was my home race and a really special weekend for me, and we wanted to share this experience also with some of our closest friends.
“But at the same time, I realised too late into the weekend that I was wasting too much energy on that side and not having enough energy left for the important bit.”
Antonelli started the Monaco weekend setting the 11th-fastest time in FP1, just under three tenths slower than team-mate George Russell.
