The brutal honesty that will serve Kimi Antonelli well

The Italian teenager admitted he lacked confidence at Suzuka - and then he found some....

Kimi Antonelli continues to impress as he works his way along a steep learning curve at Mercedes, and after a wet debut in Melbourne followed by a full race with a damaged floor in China he could have done with a straightforward weekend at his third attempt.

Instead he got Suzuka, a track he didn’t know – plans to do a Super Formula test late last year were abandoned due to illness – and which is one of the most difficult on the calendar.

After struggling to find his way over the three practice sessions he showed that he learned by being P8, P7 and P6 over the three qualifying decisions, those numbers somehow symbolising his overall rate of progress.

But what really caught the eye when he talked after the session was his brutal honesty about his own performance. He cited a lack of confidence in the free practice sessions, and took full responsibility for opting for a “safe” setup, in other words one with higher than optimal downforce.

That honesty is a quality that has helped endear him to the team and which will serve him well as he continues to progress.

“Happy with how the session went, but on the other side, disappointed,” he said when I asked him about it. “Because I had to make such a step in driving from free practices. I was very lost in practice. I really had no confidence to push more, and to progress.

“And I was like, kind of stuck from where I finished in FP1. I headed into qualifying with very little confidence, and having to make a really big step in driving. So overall I was getting there, step-by-step. But yeah, it definitely is a good lesson ahead of the next race.”

These days drivers do so much work in the sim that they could drive their first real laps of most tracks blindfold, but Suzuka isn’t quite that straightforward.

“The thing is, it’s definitely a really fast track,” he said. “It’s not easy as well, first sector especially, because it’s quite narrow. But you need to get the timing right with all the turning points. But as well I think also with the setup, we started quite safe, because I didn’t have confidence, so I needed to get confidence.

“But then as the track was improving and cooling down, I didn’t really had the courage as well to push the setup even further. So also, that is something that I learned for the next qualifyings. But overall I’m happy, because I felt like I maximised the result.”

He made it looks easy, but it wasn’t: “Mentally it was really tough, because when you’re kind of stuck there and you see that you really struggle to make steps, mentally it’s difficult. Especially because you see that you have to make such a step in all the sectors.

“It’s every corner you have to make a massive step in driving. So I really dug deep, and really tried to focus on what I had to do. And eventually it was a decent lap. Of course, far from perfect, but I cannot complain about it either.”

So how did he find that improvement?

“It was a mix of everything. What I really like to do is re-watching my lap, because I can see where maybe I do a wrong line, or where I could have done better. I was getting there, step-by-step.

“Also, I think using two sets in Q1 didn’t really help, but that was on me, because I didn’t do a good enough lap at the start. Because I think with two sets in Q3 it definitely could have helped me as well, to make a further step.”

Regarding the set-up for qualifying he said: “It was not massively different, but definitely it was more safe. Because as I just said before, I had no confidence, and so definitely was more on the safe side, but definitely on the end of the quali it was a bit too safe.

“But that’s not on the team, it was my decision, because I was feeling good with it. I was getting the confidence back. Definitely in that last lap that I had decent confidence, I probably could have asked the team to push the setup a bit more on the edge.

“Melbourne was a really big test, the race. But I think on the mental side, this was a good test as well, because when you’re so far off in in three practices, not one free practice, all of them, it’s really hard mentally.

“And especially you go into qualifying and you’re uncertain of what you can achieve as a result. So, it was really good test mentally, and I was happy with how I reacted to it.”

He admitted that he would have had a decent head start had he done the Super Formula test as planned.

“Also that didn’t help, because I was meant to test, but I was ill, so I couldn’t really do anything. So I just went home after Abu Dhabi, because even in that post-season test, I wasn’t feeling very well, and I was meant to fly right after it, but I was too ill to go there and drive.

“So of course, it was unfortunate, because probably it could have helped, just to know the track a little bit more. But as I said before there’s still some disappointment with the performance, but at the same time, I cannot complain with how the session went.”

Kimi scored decent points in the wet in Australia, despite a spin, and he’s not afraid of more of the same. Pretty brave considering how tricky Suzuka is in the wet.

“I wouldn’t mind some rain, maybe a bit of chaos at the front! But we’ll see tomorrow. I think we’ll see in the moment. But a lot of data to look at overnight in order to be ready for tomorrow.”