Kimi Antonelli has admitted that the intense hype and emotional whirlwind of his home Formula 1 debut contributed to the worst performance of his young career so far.
The 18-year-old Italian arrived at Imola, just half an hour from his native Bologna, to the full embrace of Italian fans and media. He brought 100 trays of lasagna for the Mercedes crew, welcomed his entire high school class, and hosted multiple family members — all while being hailed as the next national motorsport hero.
Despite the fanfare, his key mentor — Mercedes boss Toto Wolff — was notably absent. For the first time, Wolff was completely disconnected from the race weekend while attending his son's graduation in Los Angeles.
"It will be the first race I'm completely cut off from," Wolff told Bild beforehand. "This grand prix is especially important for Kimi. He'll feel a lot of pressure from the Italian media.
"Push away everything that's not good for you," he advised his charge.
Unfortunately, Antonelli couldn't. Although his race ended prematurely with a technical failure, he was off-colour on the track all weekend.
"I need to work on my driving," he admitted post-race. "I need to see where I can improve and also improve my race pace, especially in hot conditions. I think it was my worst weekend in terms of performance."
The teenager didn't shy away from blaming the emotional weight of his home race for the dip.
"I didn't handle the energy of the fans very well," Antonelli said. "I wasn't as relaxed – I was more tense when I was driving. But I learned my lesson before the next home race.
"I didn't take enough time for myself on most occasions. I was wasting energy and it affected the performance in the car."
In Wolff's absence, Mercedes' head of communications and media, Bradley Lord, served as acting team lead and described the weekend to Sky Deutschland as a "bitter setback" for the Brackley team.
1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve didn't hold back in his assessment of the situation.
"It's cute," he said sarcastically on Sky. "He brought his friends – but it's his office.
"You don't bring friends or family to your office."
Villeneuve also claimed that Gwen Lagrue, the Mercedes junior programme boss, was reportedly "not super happy" with all the side events surrounding Antonelli's Imola debut.
Among those at the circuit was MotoGP icon Valentino Rossi, who knows Antonelli well after some joint karting days for training. When asked by Sky Italia for advice, Rossi didn't hesitate.
"It was definitely difficult for him, the first weekend in Imola, in Italy," he said. "It's tough.
With experience he'll start to say no to some people."
