Toto Wolff advised Andrea Kimi Antonelli to put everything unimportant out of his mind for his home race in Imola, but he took his school class with him and then had no energy left
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff warned his protégé Andrea Kimi Antonelli to put aside anything that could distract him during the weekend in Imola. But the 18-year-old was unable to heed his boss’s advice last week.
“I didn’t do a good job in terms of energy,” the Mercedes driver admitted after a difficult weekend. “I could feel it when I got into the car. I wasn’t as mentally present as I usually am.”
Antonelli had to carry the burden of his first home race in Imola – media appointments, sponsor requests, fans. “It was very intense and demanding, especially mentally,” he admits.
“I wasn’t as focused, but not because I was thinking about something else – when you’re mentally tired, it’s just hard to stay focused. I definitely didn’t manage my energy well.”
“Driving a Formula 1 car requires 100 percent concentration and commitment. And even if you’re only at 97 percent—it may not seem like much, but it makes a huge difference,” he says. ‘Especially nowadays, when the gaps between cars and drivers are so small.’
In terms of his driving, he didn’t do anything wrong and didn’t take the wrong approach, but outside the car he simply set the wrong priorities. For example, he invited his entire school class to the race.
“I spent a lot of time with other people – not with my engineer, but with friends and also with guests who came to watch the race,” says Antonelli. “I spent too much energy dealing with people, and then I didn’t have enough left for driving – which is obviously the most important part.”
“Of course we wanted to share the experience, it was a home race and a special weekend for me. We wanted to share this experience with close friends. But I realized too late that I had wasted too much energy on that side of things.”
This led to Antonelli having a disappointing qualifying session in 13th place and, until his technical retirement, he was unable to make much of an impression in the race either.
“I couldn’t perform on the track the way I wanted to. Overall, it was a very disappointing weekend for me,” he lamented. ”Of course, it was anything but ideal, but I learned a lot from it – especially with regard to the next home race, which will be Monza, but also for the upcoming races in general.”
