By Joe Cash
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli said he was “surprised by the level of intensity” required to stay with the front-runners during his first Formula One race in Australia last weekend, ahead of taking to the track again for the Chinese Grand Prix.
The 18-year-old Italian, the German team’s pick to replace seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton following his switch to Ferrari, finished fourth in a rain-hit season opening race in Melbourne, navigating his way through the field after qualifying in 16th position having run wide and damaged his car.
“Definitely, for a first race they were not the easiest of conditions,” Antonelli told reporters on Thursday ahead of his second F1 outing in Shanghai.
“I’m not going to lie, at the start I was a bit nervous, because I started at the back in the rain, and things can happen, but it was a good experience.
“What really surprised me was the level of intensity that I have to keep in order to perform and be able to stay with the front-runners,” he added.
“It’s all so intense. As a driver, you want to be on the top of your game, you want to be (up) there, you want to be fast.”
Antonelli, one of six new drivers lining up on the starting grid for the first time this year, only began driving single-seater cars in 2021.
He skipped Formula 3, an F1 feeder series, and Mercedes accelerated his development through Formula 2 by giving him private tests in older cars last year.
His fourth-place finish in Melbourne made him the youngest F1 debutant to score points, but Antonelli’s first public outing in the sport was marred by a 118 mph crash in a practice session at last year’s Italian Grand Prix.
“Monza was a really terrible moment for me as a driver, but I think I learned a lot from it,” Antonelli said, adding that crashing out in front of his home crowd had changed him both as a driver and as a person.
“I’m not going to lie, when I was in Free Practice 1 in Monza, I was pushing. I was free to push, and I was like no fear… on the limit, not caring about anything else,” he told reporters in China.
“I learned after that… it’s better to take a step back and its better to push progressively and build the session because when such a mistake happens, you make a lot more steps back than you make forwards.”
Mercedes has paired the young Italian with the same race engineer that seven-times world champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton worked with while driving for the team, Peter Bonnington.
“Having someone who has gone through all that already really helps you because I know he would be able to guide me in every situation,” Antonelli said.
(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Ken Ferris)
