Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli says he purposefully took a “calmer” approach to his second official F1 outing with the Brackely squad in Friday’s first practice session.
The 18-year-old Italian, who stepped into Lewis Hamilton’s W15, was determined to avoid the mistakes of his debut appearance at Monza, where a frantic pace led to an early crash that cut his session short.
Having learned from his previous experience, Antonelli’s priority at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was first and foremost to put together a clean and steady 60-minute stint.
“Yeah definitely much better than Monza, I drove much calmer today,” he said at the end of his day.
“I didn’t want to take any risks, I just wanted to do a clean session just to get some laps, understand the car and the tyres a bit more, overall was pretty decent.
“I could feel I wasn’t on the limit but just because it was my choice, I just wanted to get a clean session overall.”
Despite his careful approach, Antonelli faced a minor hiccup early in the session. Running over debris on track, he sustained damage to the car’s floor, leading to a brief red flag.
“Yeah, to be honest I didn’t really see it so yeah was a shame because I got quite a bit of floor damage from it, was quite a big damage, so of course it wasn’t ideal but I managed to get a few laps in the bag.”
©Mercedes
Despite the setback, Antonelli totaled 19 laps in FP1, eventually setting the 12th fastest time, 1.202s off George Russell’s leading time.
Given it was his first time at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the session was also an opportunity for him to familiarize himself with the challenging circuit.
“I was trying to build confidence lap by lap, and also it was my first time on the track so I was trying to learn as much as possible,” he added.
“Of course, on the soft the step in grip was quite big, also because on hard I was doing consecutive laps I wasn’t doing one cool push, so I couldn’t really try the single lap work.
“So I went on soft and I felt a lot more grip and didn’t really use it as I was surprised by the amount of grip.”
©Mercedes
The session was undeniably a marked improvement for Antonelli, who has been easing into the rigors of Formula 1 after securing his spot on Mercedes' 2025 roster.
As he navigates the challenges of a steep learning curve in the top tier of motorsport, the young Italian’s measured and reflective approach at Mexico City showed signs of maturity and the ability to learn from past experiences.
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