Kimi Antonelli vents: “I’m tired; I’ve had enough for this year.”

After his fairy-tale comeback with a victory at Monza and a fifth-place finish in Baku, Kimi Antonelli wants to change the script in Malaysia. The rescheduled Bahrain Grand Prix, set to take place in Sepang, offers the Mercedes driver the chance to refocus on qualifying and, above all, avoid another race that’s an uphill battle from start to finish.

“The weekend in Baku was complicated right from free practice; then I made a mistake in qualifying, but we managed to limit the damage. I had to race cautiously to avoid taking risks, but I didn’t like it—I didn’t feel like myself in the car. And I’m tired of having to start from the back and fight my way back up; I’ve had enough of that this year—I want to get back to starting up front.”

Antonelli hasn’t yet had the chance to test the new parts on the track—they’ve only been tested on the simulator so far—and he considers FP1 a crucial step in understanding the actual performance of the updates: “The engineers have told us about a potential improvement of three-tenths. Let’s see how FP1 goes; it will be very important for evaluating how well the updates work. So far, I’ve only tested the package on the simulator, as well as the track. It’s a circuit that puts a lot of strain on the tires, and we’ll have to work hard on race pace, since the asphalt here is very abrasive.”

The weather could further complicate the weekend. Forecasts indicate a real risk of rain, especially in the afternoon, both during qualifying and the race: “We haven’t raced in the wet for a long time; the weather has been kind to us this year. But I’d like to drive in those kinds of conditions. It often rains here in the afternoon; we’ll see if we end up doing a few laps in the rain during qualifying or the race.”