Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished his first full season in Formula 1 with impressive numbers, but without hiding the difficulties encountered along the way. seventh place in Drivers’ World Cup 2025, with 150 points, the Italian Mercedes He finished as the best rookie in the championship, even if he recognized a year marked by fluctuations in performance.
In a newspaper interview Gazzetta du SportAntonelli assessed the process of adapting to the category and highlighted the European period of the season as the most difficult. After an encouraging start and a regular closing, the pilot went through a long low phase between the General practitioners of Emilia-Romagna and of The Netherlands, with few points added, with the exception of the podium in Canada.
“It was a year of ups and downs. I went through a sea of events, difficulties and satisfactions and, looking back, I can say that I am happy, because I managed to overcome difficult moments, such as the drop in performance in the middle of the season. It is a lesson that I will carry with me throughout my career, because it allowed me to make a mental leap that will be useful to me in the future.”he declared.
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More than technical issues, Antonelli acknowledged that how he handled pressure directly influenced his results. According to him, he lacked confidence in his own feelings in the car at decisive moments.
“I didn’t know how to trust my instinct. I learned to listen to myself more, including when driving, and to stay focused without thinking only about the end result. Sometimes this year I was guided by frustration and I arrived at decisive situations with a bad mentality, thinking more about defending myself than attacking”, explain.
The young man also revealed that the internal changes at Mercedes were decisive for the recovery in performance in the final stretch of the championship. A technical adjustment, combined with direct conversations with team management, helped revamp his approach on and off the track.
“Of course, going back to the old rear suspension helped me a lot. After Monza I had a meeting with Toto and Bono, my engineer, who explained to me what was wrong with what I was doing and helped me understand how to do a real mental reset”he said.
With the season over, Formula 1 is now entering the holiday period. The cars return to the track between January 26 and 30, during private tests at Barcelonabefore the official pre-season sessions at Bahrainscheduled for February 11 to 13 and 18 to 20.
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