Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli revealed how he’s learning how to build up performance through a Formula 1 Grand Prix, which no doubt proved pivotal in his historic run to Sprint Pole in Miami.
Antonelli joined Mercedes at the start of 2025 as one of the most-hotly anticipated rookies in years.
Aged just 18, the Italian teenager has harnessed his raw speed to consistently score points, and edge closer to team leader George Russell, who is putting together a stellar campaign thus far.
On Friday at the Miami International Autodrome, everything came together for Antonelli as he took pole position in Sprint Qualifying, becoming the youngest driver to ever top an F1 qualifying session.
READ MORE – Kimi Antonelli claims historic pole position for Miami F1 Sprint
Ahead of the weekend’s action unfolding, Antonelli explained how he’s getting up to speed and the mindset he approaches to build up through a GP weekend.
“Because of the fact that I’m getting more confidence with the car, weekend by weekend, I think it’s going to be a bit easier to get up to speed, just because I have more confidence in the car and more confidence in pushing it to the limit,” Antonelli told select media including Motorsport Week on Thursday.
“Of course, I’m still not where I want to be in terms of driving and pushing to the limit, but every weekend I feel like I’m making a step forward.”
Choosing the right mindset
Antonelli revealed that lessons learned in Suzuka, where he had to recover a one-second deficit to Russell from practice into qualifying, taught him how to manage reaching the limit over the course of a race meet.
“You really need to be careful with your mindset because if you tell yourself, ‘oh, FP1, I’m going to start easy, I’m just going to slowly get into the rhythm,’ it’s not the right mindset,” he explained.
“Of course, you want to build up, but you want to start already with a good level of pushing because if you start too far off, then it’s really hard to catch up.
“I’m just thinking about it, Suzuka, I had the approach of building up, but mindset-wise, it was not the right one because I started way too easy and then I had to make such a huge step of driving in qualifying.
“So, especially in new tracks, you don’t want to go out and push lap one straight to the limit and then maybe do a mistake because then that just hurts your confidence, but at the same time, you don’t want to start too far off because, whilst the others keep improving, you have to make a really huge step in driving and most of the time, it’s really difficult to do.”
Kimi Antonelli perfectly executed his learnings to claim Miami Sprint Pole
After 70 laps in the sim preparing for his first run in Miami, and just one practice session to prepare, Antonelli utilised his aforementioned learnings to devastating effect to beat the much-fancied McLarens to Sprint Pole.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the session, the Mercedes star reiterated how he’s been learning to build performance behind the wheel of the W16.
Moreover, having a break between the opening five rounds and Miami gave Antonelli the chance to take stock of all the lessons he’d learned.
“Well, it’s coming a lot every week and I’m learning massively, and I think the last week having a break really helped me to gather all the informations and process them all, you know, and also recharging a little bit of the batteries, it was really good,” he explained.
“The whole qualifying, I thought I was able to make a step lap by lap.
“I’m much more aware of how to do a consistent warm up, how to extract more of the tyre, but of course there’s still a lot to improve, but we’re in a good way.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the weekend, Antonelli also added that his confidence with the car is enabling the team to fine-tune his set-up to improve his standing as the sessions tick by.
“I’m able to play with the car more and explore more the limit, but at the same time understand much better the set-up of the car,” he added.
“I can give much better feedback, much more detail, and that’s allowed the team as well to improve the car during the weekend,” he concluded.
It’s clear to anyone who has been watching Antonelli so far this season, and from his words before and after Sprint Qualifying in Miami, that his pole position wasn’t a shock.
This is the result of potentially generational talent putting the ‘practice makes perfect’ ideology into stunning results.
READ MORE – Kimi Antonelli revels in ‘mighty’ lap that secured Miami F1 Sprint pole
