INSIGHT: From his FP1 debut crash to a charging home victory – how Antonelli ‘closed the circle’ at Monza

Kimi Antonelli made arguably the biggest statement of his short F1 career to date at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Sunday, superbly rising from the back of the grid to P1 for an emotional first home win in the top echelon.

But perhaps more importantly, it marked a healing, full-circle moment for the young Italian who just two years earlier made his Free Practice debut around the famous Temple of Speed – only to dramatically crash out inside the opening 10 minutes.

As Mercedes boss Toto Wolff put it post-race: “It’s how the circle closed. Two years ago, it was probably the toughest moment in his career for himself and his family. A moment where everyone doubted, including himself.

“Then, two years later, it’s the biggest glory, the biggest moment of his career that’s probably going to be one of his biggest moments overall in the future.”

Antonelli’s dramatic F1 arrival

It was Friday, August 30, 2024, when Antonelli’s F1 adventure properly began.

Aged only 18, and having starred in various F4 and Formula Regional championships, the Mercedes junior got his chance to appear at an F1 weekend for the very first time, replacing George Russell – and joining Lewis Hamilton – in FP1.

In truth, Antonelli had already been signed to replace Ferrari-bound Hamilton for the 2025 season, with his Friday run coming before a special press conference on Saturday to announce the news.

At 1331 local time, Antonelli exited the pit lane to cheers from the home crowd and set about making the day a memorable one – immediately tackling a series of soft-tyre runs and trading early fastest laps with his seven-time World Champion team mate.

Excitement and expectation built with every lap that Antonelli hustled his car through Monza’s high-speed sweeps, until just under 10 minutes into the session, when he pushed things too far at the entry to the Parabolica corner.

I remember hearing the screech and moment of impact a few hundred metres up the road in our F1 office, which had been swept away with Antonelli’s purple sector times, only to fall silent as the Mercedes slammed into the barriers at 1339.

The priority was, of course, confirming that Antonelli had not injured himself in a hefty 52G shunt, but it did not take long for questions to fill the paddock as to whether this could be too much, too soon for a driver who had already skipped F3 and gone straight to F2.

“Kimi, all good,” a reassuring Wolff commented over the radio, as he and Mercedes went into protection mode – cancelling Antonelli’s media duties for the day, and giving him time to process what had happened away from the racetrack.

When I spoke to Wolff in the TV pen a couple of hours later, he stressed: “We don’t want to slow a driver down. We’re happy to work with someone that has so much speed, that has confidence – and sometimes that can end up in the wall.

“I think he just pushed it too hard, expected from the car more than it had at that that time, and that’s okay.

“He has a lot of talent, and a lot of potential, and now it needs to be conditioned. When you invest in young drivers, these things happen, and you need to be prepared to take that risk.”

Mercedes, of course, still took that risk – Antonelli returning to the paddock on Saturday morning with a cautious smile on his face, and vowing to learn from his very public mistake in the announcement press call that went ahead as planned.

Then, after banishing the demons of his Monza FP1 outing at the Mexico City Grand Prix later in the season – “I drove much calmer today!” – Antonelli and Mercedes turned their attentions to 2025, and a new post-Hamilton era.

Looking back now, the ‘25 season opener in Australia summed up what was ahead for Antonelli. Competitive in final practice, dropping out in Q1 after a scrappy first attempt at Qualifying, and surging from P16 to P4 in the race (to finish within a couple of seconds of Russell) in tricky, changeable weather conditions.

Antonelli’s raw talent was never in question, but there would be plenty to work on across that debut campaign: from his general weekend approach to understanding and exploiting the car’s potential, and dealing with the huge increase in demand for his time to coping with the scrutiny of F1’s press.

Around his first Sprint pole position in Miami and his maiden podium finish in Canada, a difficult European leg of the season that featured a few more early Qualifying exits, costly mistakes and several retirements took its toll on Antonelli.

A particularly difficult Belgian Grand Prix weekend even reduced Antonelli to tears in the media pen, before a low-key Italian Grand Prix prompted a public hurry-up from Wolff, who described his performance as “underwhelming”.

In a recent interview, Antonelli shared just how much the pressure was getting to him midway through last year, and how he ultimately arrested the slide to end the season on a much stronger note with podiums in Brazil and Las Vegas.

“I think mostly last year I felt this, because obviously I’ve had a good start of the season, then I’ve had a difficult period, the European season, where I really struggled,” said Antonelli.

“In that moment I felt… I let the pressure kind of destroy me as well during that period, because I felt like I was letting down so many people who had believed in me – especially Toto, because he was the main one who took the decision [to sign me].

“I didn’t feel good in that period, I wasn’t doing well, but then I had a big meeting with the team after the European season, and it kind of allowed me to reset and just start again. I slowly found my way back, and then I had a good second half of the season.

“That gave me the confidence, being able to overcome those difficult moments, and gave me the confidence I have this year. It also made me learn a lot about myself, not only as a driver but as a person as well.”

Putting those lessons to good use

Indeed, at the Barcelona Shakedown in January this year, Antonelli looked like a refreshed figure – appearing calm and confident both in and out of a car built to all-new regulations.

What followed, however, was beyond most people’s expectations.

After backing up Russell at the Australia season opener, where he did well to recover from an FP3 crash that might have derailed his weekend amid those 2025 struggles, Antonelli charged to four pole positions and five victories across the next five rounds.

The pressure had seemingly been lifted, the doubts erased, and Antonelli was displaying what Wolff predicted would be possible from his early days in karting.

“It kind of shows the decision we’ve taken last year, [that] giving him a year to learn while he was still 18 is going to monetise in the future,” Wolff told F1.com after Antonelli’s maiden Grand Prix pole in China. “You can see how he’s grown and how mature he is now.

“One of the things we are most impressed by is that, compared to last year, Kimi is acting with so much maturity and cold-bloodedness to issues. He’s able to compartmentalise the debriefing, talk about what’s ahead and not what’s behind with a lot of confidence, but no over-confidence.

“For a racing driver, beyond the skill of driving the car fast, that mental resilience is key, and that’s what Kimi is showing at the moment.”

Antonelli has delivered more of the same since then, only failing to finish on the podium in Barcelona and at Silverstone due to reliability issues, and building a sizeable lead over Russell at the top of the championship standings.

Then came last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix where, following an engine-related grid penalty, Antonelli took things to another level.

In what represented a huge opportunity for front-row starter Russell – who has had his own share of misfortune this season – to claw back some points, Antonelli somehow managed to extend his advantage by turning 19th on the grid into victory.

A drive for the ages, he was up to 12th after two tours, made it into the points-paying positions shortly after the restart, arrived on Russell’s tail at one-third distance, and had made an initial move for the lead on Lap 18.

Mid-race Virtual Safety Car or not, when the Mercedes drivers split their strategies, “nothing would have stopped him”, according to Wolff.

“I thought one of the two is going to win,” added the Austrian team boss. “Either George, because he was on [the front row], or Kimi, because he’s going to walk over water here in Monza, and I felt that yesterday also.”

Antonelli’s win was the first for an Italian driver at Monza since Ludovico Scarfiotti back in 1966, and puts him one step closer to becoming the first Italian to claim the F1 Drivers’ Championship since Alberto Ascari’s 1952-53 double.

From crashing Russell’s car on that whirlwind Friday a couple of years ago, to now leading the intra-team battle at Mercedes, he has certainly come a long way.