Kimi Antonelli debut season has already turned out to be one of the most emotionally charged and the most scrutinised debut campaigns that Formula 1 has witnessed many years. The young Mercedes driver, who was all too often proclaimed a new generation of talents to have sprung out of the junior ranks, has been subjected to a harsh mix of cyber bullying, highs and lows of performance and a loss of confidence, brought about by some technical problems that caused him to hit the brakes temporarily. However, in the run-up to season two, he has displayed strength and rejuvenation, making a character-building year a hallmark of the end of the season.
The recent storm broke out following the Qatar Grand Prize of which Antonelli made a wide pull on the kerbs allowing Lando Norris to pass over and took fourth place. Although racially, the incident itself was harmless, an outburst of hate on the Internet ensued. Red Bull apologized when some of the messages it released unintentionally enhanced the backlash, though not before the abuse reached the death threat stage. Antonelli, who does not run his own social media profiles, claimed to have learned nothing of the commentary, until friends pointed to him the magnitude of the response.
The young Italian acknowledged that he was shaken by the messages that he saw. The intensity of the attacks could make getting all those kind of comments after the race not easy and he thought about it knowing that he would never do the same thing, like waving past a competitor, in the future. It was definitely a blow to the head to get such comments, but then again, it was good to see the Red Bull statement. He said that he does not use social media over the weekends on which he is preparing to race to remove distractions. But once the race was over I received many messages on top of messages of my friends telling me what was going on and of course I decided to look at it and it was hard to see, but now I have forgotten about it.
Nonetheless, the emotional weight of that event is a mere nothing compared to the professional challenges that he had to face in the Kimi Antonelli rookie season. Mercedes tested a new rear suspension geometry at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix which was meant to stabilise ride height and enhance uniformity of downforce. Instead, the upgrade introduced instability during the braking process, something which eliminated a major aspect of driver confidence to the drivers Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton. Though the victory of the team in Canada momentarily covered up the problem since the profile of braking in the straight line of the track, the real problem showed itself in other places and the lowest point of Antonelli resulted in his most embarrassing moment at Spa. The inability to get out of Q1 in the sprint and the main qualifying left the teenager in tears and made him go through some doubts he had never had in his motorsport career success.
The turnaround commenced after Mercedes returned to the old geometry in Hungary. Antonelli revived the form that enabled him to land his inaugural F1 pole during the sprint race in Miami in the beginning of the year. He has since followed that with a streak of consecutive points finishes and podiums in Sao Paulo and Las Vegas to set himself just two points behind his teammate Hamilton in the standings with only one race left. The development has re-existing him as one of the most promising young drivers via the sport as well as regaining confidence within the garage.
Summarizing the ride, Antonelli said he had spent the Kimi Antonelli rookie season in a huge learning curve. Coming into Mercy started highlight and pressure as well as his development speeded up. I believe I have had my good side and bad side, this season, he said. It was a very long difficult period, but I was able to overcome and that worked out to my advantage. At that time even in Europe I began doubting myself and I feared that I could not come out of it. He attributes the change of momentum in Baku because it has rebuilt confidence and enjoyment. I am pretty satisfied with the season, but I am most satisfied with the extent of my growth and maturation as an individual. The following year I will be much more ready and much more at control.
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