Adjectives are overrated. Facts and numbers usually speak louder. A victory from 19th on the grid. The first victory for an Italian at Monza since 1966. At just 20 years old. In his second Formula 1 season.
Call it sensational. Fantastic. Impressive. Magic. Extraordinary. Remarkable. Incredible. Historic. These are just words. Simply the fact that Kimi Antonelli won the Italian Grand Prix after overtaking almost the entire field tells you everything.
And… just two years after his first-ever FP1 at the same track. The one that ended in the barriers just 10 minutes after the session started.
That crash contributed a lot to many forming the opinion that Mercedes had either overestimated Antonelli’s potential or rushed him into F1 too quickly. Toto Wolff’s flashbacks to losing Max Verstappen to Red Bull back in 2014 had fogged his mind, they said. Antonelli was nowhere near Verstappen’s potential, they thought. He was just overhyped, they believed.
Mercedes and Wolff never backed down. Promotion to F1 at the age of 18, after a single – and quite average, to be fair – season in F2. Straight into the seat vacated by the seven-time world champion.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images
They even released a documentary just two months into his first season, in cooperation with one of the sponsors, of course.
The Seat.
Have you watched it? It’s actually decent if you make your peace with all the promotional content.
The Monza crash was part of that movie and took up quite a decent chunk of the 40-minute video.
“That day, I let down all my family, my dad,” Kimi said, sitting in front of the camera. “He was not happy.”
Wolff is surely someone who has played a major role in Antonelli’s career, along with Gwen Lagrue, the outgoing Mercedes junior programme chief, but it was Kimi’s father Marco who laid the foundations. He doesn’t often speak to the media, and the details of his son’s early career aren’t as well known as, for example, those of Verstappen. Yes, Marco was a driver too – but he wasn’t an F1 driver, after all.
One of those rare occasions came just a few days ago, when Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport published an interview with Antonelli Sr after Kimi’s 20th birthday.
“I also hope he remains who he is, sweet and generous, and continues to do what he loves for as long as possible,” Marco told Italy’s biggest sports newspaper.
Marco Antonelli celebrates in parc ferme.
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
Kimi does indeed seem like a sweet and generous guy, which probably makes it even harder for someone like George Russell. You can’t even hate the kid, however much he keeps beating you – so sweet off track, yet driving like a devil!
Yet, despite him now making it all look like a game, it has surely been a tough journey – both for son and father. And perhaps for their relationship, too. Marco may never have left his son alone at a petrol station after a disappointing kart race, but dads of successful athletes are usually of a demanding kind.
There’s a moment in the documentary when they are shown together in a car during the winter leading up to Kimi’s first F1 season, with Marco behind the wheel. His son says he didn’t understand as a kid why his father was so tough on him.
“This is something we never talked about, but this moment is an opportunity to explain,” Antonelli Sr responds. “I often think about all the times I yelled at you, all the times I got angry with you. You said, ‘My father is an asshole. Why does he do that?’ – [it’s] because in my career, unfortunately I couldn’t get ahead. I couldn’t take advantage of the opportunities I had. That’s why we were fighting, because I was probably asking you to do more than you could in that moment.”
That gives you at least a glimpse of what the journey might have been like.
In one of his rare interviews later, Marco would admit that he himself – as a parent – probably didn’t believe in Kimi’s potential as much as Wolff did. Now, he admits his son is exceeding his expectations too.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images
The last real challenge for Antonelli now seems to be keeping his feet on the ground. Because there’s every reason for them to start taking off. Winning at Monza from the penultimate row of the grid will bring no shortage of praise from all directions.
Italy certainly won’t hold back in imposing its love upon him.
He’ll surely be declared world champion by many after this race, given the gap to Russell in the championship. And very soon he’ll surely start thinking about becoming one himself – if he hasn’t already.
For now, he keeps battling those thoughts away – at least when speaking to the press.
“I mean, definitely it’s been a very strong year so far, but still many races left and so still anything can happen,” he muttered again on Sunday after his historic, sensational and remarkable win. “And we’ve seen how things can swing very quickly. So, on my side, as I said many times, just take it race by race, focus on things that I can control and just maximise every opportunity I get.”
His father will surely approve of that answer. And he’ll certainly do his best to make sure Kimi doesn’t get carried away by everything that’s about to come his way. But that’s something to think about a little later.
For now, though, Marco Antonelli can simply be a proud dad.
