Fiesta awaits in Mexico City as Kimi Antonelli speeds towards F1 history
An undeniable highlight of this Formula One season, marked by discontent at the new regulations, has been getting swept along by the sheer joy that the world champion-in-waiting, Kimi Antonelli, has displayed on his way to a title he will almost surely secure this weekend at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Antonelli was still a teenager for the first half of the year and it seemed fitting to describe him as such. His exuberant embrace of competing for Mercedes at the sharp end of F1 in just his second season was that of any 19-year-old. Like discovering a life-changing new band or how much fun can be had with a cold beer, a wide grin was barely off his face.
He is 20 now, still but a stripling and on Sunday at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez if he finishes in ninth place or better he will be F1’s youngest world champion, and the first Italian to win the title since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
Antonelli has confessed that as a four-year-old he did not recall when Sebastian Vettel became the previous youngest title winner in 2010. “I remember I was playing with Hot Wheels, but I don’t remember him clinching it,” he said.
This weekend he will likely embrace an unforgettable moment. Antonelli has shone on track, at home with the complex requirements of the new energy-managed cars, extracting a pace and control such that even his more experienced Mercedes teammate George Russell has been left flailing in his wake. To which traits he has allied a sharp and incisive driving style that has been extraordinary at times and a judgment that has belied his years.
That he has done so with such alacrity, especially after a difficult rookie season last year, has surprised many. Not least those team principal Toto Wolff pointedly observed had been questioning whether Antonelli should even be in F1 after his debut season. Doubts now assuredly consigned to the dustbin of history, in the city where Leon Trotsky, who coined the phrase, was killed in 1940.
It has been clear how much the Italian loves what he does and how that has informed his performances. At his shoulder through the trials of last season and the triumphs of this, has been Peter Bonnington. Bono, as he is known, was Lewis Hamilton’s engineer across the British driver’s six titles with Mercedes. He and Antonelli have established a close relationship, a friendship, with the Italian taking on board his colleague’s experience and cool head, often referencing him and the importance of their interaction.
During Antonelli’s run of five successive victories in the opening period of the season, the last of them was a striking performance in Monaco. Taking an exceptional pole position to deny Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was in fearsome form on the streets of the principality, he then delivered a remarkable race win, including seeing off two restarts.
After this, Bono, who often has the avuncular air of an older brother with his young charge, gave an almost disarmingly straightforward explanation of what made his driver so quick.
“As soon as he’s happy in the car: happy driver, fast lap time,” he said. The team have adopted an approach to allow Antonelli the opportunity to ensure he could drive in a way that allowed him to truly embrace being himself and in so doing, taking the pressure off.
Bonningham described this as “giving him the freedom to do what he enjoys, giving him the freedom to enjoy driving the car, that’s a real big thing and not stressing too much. He’s just a joy to work with.”
To trust the youngster’s instincts and talent, when the temptation to micromanage him must have been overwhelming, has worked brilliantly. Even as the opposition caught and at times surpassed Mercedes, Antonelli was able to deliver when a win was off the table. When it was, as at the last round in Austin, he stepped up to sweep it away with a nonchalance that typified why he is world champion elect.
This makes the atmosphere in Mexico City all the more febrile in what is already one of the most vibrant venues on the calendar. Antonelli could barely have chosen a better location to enjoy the celebration of his childhood dream. The fans here embrace F1 with the same passion the Italian has for his trade.
With the race coinciding with Mexico’s Day of the Dead, the city and the paddock are adorned with the bright orange Mexican marigolds, the “flor de muerto”. Skulls and skeletons, candles and colour are plentiful to welcome the return of the departed in a joyful, festival lending the weekend an already celebratory air.
The F1 faithful are also in good cheer in welcoming home hero Sergio Pérez back to the grid, with Cadillac and his image everywhere in Mexico City. On occasion he appears as a lifesize cardboard cut-out, rather incongruously in a line of fabulously-dressed skeletons. Yet fans will also doubtless revel in having this marvellous venue celebrate F1’s youngest champion in the heady atmosphere of the stadium section of Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Hamilton has experienced it twice, when he sealed the title here in 2017 and 2018, and the seven-time champion’s assessment of Antonelli’s season was as telling as that of his former race engineer.
“You never know how anyone’s going to do under pressure until you see them,” he said. “I could assume that he was going to be fine with the weight you have on you. When you have to do all these appearances and all these things, pulled left, right and centre. But he’s taken it in his stride. He’s a relatively old soul in that young body.”
Antonelli was withdrawn from his media duties on Thursday, with Mercedes saying he was unwell and needing to recover properly, but the Italian has stated he would like to finish the job in style and be able to relax for the remaining four races. There is no reason to believe he will suffer from any yips, certainly. He has demonstrated no such weakness thus far, even under the most intense pressure, with team principal Wolff sharing a further insight into why the 20-year-old stands ready to make history.
“In Austin, he came to my office sat down on the sofa and said: ‘I’m going to enjoy this one. Isn’t it funny? I’m not thinking at all about the championship,’” Wolff recalled. “I said: ‘Stick to that attitude. You have the best job in the world. Don’t forget that.’ He has the right mindset.”
The best job in the world and one he has, admirably, embraced with that irrepressible joy. The right mindset indeed. A deserved champion awaiting his coronation. On this form, not for the last time.
Source: www.theguardian.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.