Kimi Antonelli’s latest outburst becomes a promise to his fans

After his fairy-tale comeback with a victory at Monza and a fifth-place finish in Baku, Kimi Antonelli is looking to change things up 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 where he has to fight his way up from the back of the pack.

“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’ll 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 really puts the tires to the test, 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.”