Following another incredible performance at the F1 Miami GP, the Mercedes rookie, Kimi Antonelli, took P3 in Sunday’s race qualifying. The 18-year-old will start from the second row next to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. With even more motivation than before, Antonelli had the chance to see his car perform at the top and is set to try and redeem himself after the disappointing Sprint Race.
Currently, Kimi Antonelli is 6th in the 2025 Drivers Championship, separated only by 7 points from the Monegasque Charles Leclerc. With tricky weather conditions expected at the Miami International Autodrome, the Italian will surely attempt to gain precious points and valuable experience.
Settling in to Mercedes and Formula 1
Kimi Antonelli had quite an interesting Miami GP race weekend so far. His great flying lap in the Sprint Qualifying session made him the youngest driver to ever take pole position. Despite that, his last lap in Q3 for the main race showed he is not letting the pressure affect him. While he struggled a bit more with the tyres during the second qualifying, Antonelli shared that he was happy with the result nonetheless:
“It was quite OK. I struggled a little bit during the qualifying. I felt like I didn’t have such a clean run as yesterday’s Sprint Quali. I struggled more today to put the tyre in the right window and to extract the best out of it during the whole lap. I think the last lap was a bit better on that side, still not amazing, but really happy with the result.”
When looking inside the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team this weekend, it became clear that Antonelli was the faster driver in terms of qualifying. The Italian described his growing trust in the car itself as the weekends progressed in this 2025 season. Moreover, Kimi Antonelli shared his thoughts on the possibilities for the Miami GP:
“Every weekend is learning and experience, and more confidence with the car as well. So really, really happy with how every weekend I’m more able to play a lot more with the car and trying to explore the limit as well.
“So far this weekend I felt really good in the car. So that’s definitely a positive. And hopefully tomorrow we can do a good race.”
Expectations and impressions at the Miami circuit
The weather forecast for the Miami Grand Prix showed signs of thunderstorms. This type of wet conditions proved to be difficult for even the most experienced drivers, let alone rookies. Antonelli explained his concerns about the possible rain and his aversion to any personal predictions after what happened to him in the Sprint..
“I don’t really want to say because it always goes terribly wrong! So I’m just going to try to have a good start and then try to set a good pace and stay with Max and Lando. It’s not going to be easy, of course, but we’ll see, first of all, how’s the weather, because there are some thunderstorms probably, so that might not be really nice.
“But yeah, let’s just see how the weather is going to be, and then we’ll try to do our best with what we have. Definitely also in FP1 we did quite a long run, so we were able to collect good data on the dry, and hopefully we can have a good pace in the race.”
When asked about the possibility of his performance being tied to this specific circuit, the Mercedes rookie attributed the good results to more overall experience. Antonelli talked about his appreciation of the break between the triple-header and the Miami GP, mentioning how this allowed him to better review his data and progress:
“I did FP1 and I felt good, and I was able to push the car more to the limit. I think that is down a lot to also experience and confidence. I think also having a week break after a triple-header was really helpful as well for myself to gather all the information.
“So definitely a lot of experience, also understanding how to extract more out of the tyre during the whole lap—something I haven’t been doing well during the season. There’s still room for improvement, but yeah, I feel better and better in the car every weekend.”
The Italian also spoke about the switch to the more familiar European circuits, where he drove previously in more than one racing series:
“So hopefully after this weekend, we’re going to European tracks, tracks that I know well, and hopefully I can maintain the same pace or even go faster.”
Thoughts on the Sprint Race
At the start of the Miami GP Sprint, Antonelli had an incident with Oscar Piastri at turn 1 as he was pushed wide and dropped to 4th. He spoke out against the Australian driver over the radio, however, the stewards decided not to take action. Whilst this moment was difficult to judge, the Mercedes rookie shed some more light on his point of view of the situation:
“Well, I mean it was very on the limit, to be honest. My second phase on the start was not good. I broke traction, so that allowed Oscar to come alongside. Then obviously I started turning because the corner was there, and probably we were both on the limit on braking, and eventually we touched, and then I went wide and lost many places.
“But yeah, definitely tomorrow it’s going to be a bit of a different story because I’m starting second row. Definitely a lot learned from that start.”
