Andrea Kimi Antonelli made an unusual request to his Mercedes team immediately after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – asking how many points Max Verstappen lost the Formula 1 title by.
The Italian crossed the line at the Yas Marina Circuit in 15th place, ending his debut season in F1 with the German marque.
Antonelli had endured a year of ups and downs, but whilst the result was not the one he would have wanted to end with, he completed a run of seven top-10 finishes since the summer break.
The 19-year-old was also able to match the speed of his experienced team-mate George Russell across that time, including beating him in Brazil, where he finished a career best second.
At the penultimate round in Qatar, Antonelli was accused by outgoing Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko of deliberately letting Lando Norris through to give the Brit more points in the championship fight against Verstappen.
After crossing the finish line in Abu Dhabi, Antonelli was congratulated by race engineer Peter Bonnington, who said the garage were “super happy” with his debut year.
“So Norris won the championship?” Antonelli enquired.
“Affirm, yes,” Bonnington replied, to which Antonelli followed up: “How much?”
“So Norris P3, 16-and-a-half seconds.”
“No, but by how many points?” Antonelli continued.
“So that was just two, just two points.”
Antonelli rues ‘weird’ final race of 2025
Antonelli failed to make it out of Q1 in Yas Marina, which set him up for a tricky race day, which ultimately became a reality.
Struggling in the midfield throughout much of the race, Antonelli rued the result and explained how he had struggled with the W16 challenger throughout.
“It was one of those times where I really struggled in the car,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “I was really struggling with the balance. Just no pace, it was very weird.
“But to be fair today was a bad race, but I think before this weekend we had a really strong run from Baku onwards.”
Antonelli finished seventh in the Drivers’ Championship, with 150 points, just six less than illustrious Merc predecessor Lewis Hamilton.
Bonnington also told Antonelli that “I think we’ve got a real firm foundation for next year”, and on balance, it appears that is very much the case.
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