MIAMI, Fla. – All Formula 1 rookie drivers have big shoes to meet, but some shoes are bigger than most.
Like the shoes of a seven-time driver champion and one of the sports living legends.
But that's a situation where young Kimi Antonelli finds herself when Mercedes appointed him to replace Lewis Hamilton. The mission to step into Antonelli's shoes scored four of the first five race weekends of the 2025 campaign and scored points. As Grid arrives in Florida for the Miami Grand Prix, Antonelli sits sixth in the driver's ranking, one of the drivers he has traded.
The rookie driver believes in his growing confidence as the reason for his strong start in Miami on Thursday.
“Well, definitely it's a new track and looks pretty tricky as well. It's obviously a sprint weekend, so I've straightened out to just one practice and sprint qualifier.” SB Nation,Thursday.
“So obviously, that's a bit different to what I was used to in Jeddah or Bahrain, but I think it's a bit easier to speed up just because you're confident in your car and have confidence in your car by the end of the weekend.”
Antonelli admitted he is still considering a proper balance between getting his lap and finding the absolute limits of the W16 for each race weekend.
“Of course, I'm not yet the place I want to be in terms of driving and pushing to my limits, but every weekend I feel like I'm taking a step forward,” Antonelli continued. “Tomorrow's track, it's very dirty, so I think it's going to be a very unique session. But it's really important to start with the right rhythm and build the lap with the lap, in order to get as big as possible for sprint qualifiers.
“Of course, I don't think that's easy, but I think we can still get good results.”
Antoneri also spoke about hitting the right balance of aggression. Earlier that day, Oliver Baerman spoke about one of the difficult things he found when adjusting to life in Formula 1 was finding out where the restrictions are and how much he can push the car. Bareman spoke about how his year got off to a difficult start in the season-opening race in Australia and how he had to be able to “learn the hard way” to strike that balance.
Antoneri outlined how he felt.
“Well, I had to learn the hard way too. “I think you know what I'm talking about,” the Mercedes rookie put George Russell's W15 on the wall on his second push lap, referring to his rookie practice session at Monza last year.
“I think this approach is a good thing, but when you tell yourself, 'I'm going to start easily and slowly get into the rhythm,' you need to be careful about your way of thinking too. I don't think that's the correct way of thinking.
“Of course you want to accumulate, but if you start too far it's really hard to catch up, so you want to start with a good level of push already.
“So, I think it's important to take the right approach, but it's really important to have the same right mindset about how you take the session.”
Antoneri then discussed the format this weekend. This is the second F1 sprint race in the 2025 campaign. He was asked what format he liked – in a F1 sprint race in one practice session before a standard race weekend in three practice sessions or in a F1 sprint qualifier – Mercedes Rookie joked that his answer might depend on the outcome.
“If that gets worse, I'm probably hoping for a normal weekend with all three practice sessions,” Antoneli began with a laugh.
However, he noted that driving in Formula 2, which had a single practice session before qualifying, was ready for the weekend of the F1 sprint.
“As I know, last year was always like this. I got one free practice and then straight into qualifying because in F2 I use stiffer compounds and even try soft compounds with free practice.
“Of course, driving in Formula 1 is very different, requires more effort and is more difficult in some aspects, but I think the Formula 2 is ready for this kind of weekend,” continued the Mercedes rookie. “It's especially because I'm preparing to actually try to reach my limits from FP1. This hasn't really done that so far this season, but I think it's really useful after this race, so it's something I really want to do.”
But in the end, it all comes back to his confidence.
“Yeah, every weekend I'm more confident in my car, knowing what the car can do, and knowing more about setup changes too,” Antonelli added.
Tomorrow we will see the younger drivers trying to gain even more confidence in one practice session ahead of the qualifying for the Formula 1 sprint in Miami.
SB Nation You'll be on the ground throughout the Miami Grand Prix, so check out the Story Stream all week.
