Lewis Hamilton took notice of Kimi Antonelli’s difficult Belgian GP weekend and offered him kind words, according to the F1 rookie.
Antonelli failed to score points across the weekend, qualifying in the bottom five for both the sprint and main race. Hamilton experienced a similar qualifying and sprint race, but managed a remarkable recovery drive from P18 to P7 in the main race.
The Mercedes driver spoke highly of his interaction with Hamilton post-race.
“He came to say hi to the team, and definitely we had a couple of words.
“He was telling me to keep my head up and that it’s normal to have bad weekends. And just to keep believing. It was really nice.”
Hamilton praises Antonelli’s rookie F1 season
Antonelli has shown flashes of brilliance this season, taking a sprint pole in Miami and scoring his maiden podium in Montreal. Similar to the young Mercedes driver, Hamilton was thrust into a top-performing team upon his F1 debut in 2007. The Ferrari driver expressed empathy when discussing Antonelli’s current form.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like at 18 – or try to imagine what it’s like at 18 – to do what he’s doing. He’s been doing fantastic. But to be thrown in at the deep end at 18… he hadn’t even had his driving licence when he first started racing.
“I think it’s a lot on someone’s shoulders. He’s doing a great job and he’s got a great group of people around him. So, I think you’ve just got to take it in your stride, which I think he is.”
“And he’s got Bono [Mercedes race engineer Peter Bonnington] by his side. He doesn’t have anyone better.”
Antonelli describes F1 Belgian GP as “frustrating”
The young Italian expressed frustration in his performance post-race. While changing the front wing helped improve Antonelli’s confidence in the car, he expressed that his straight line speed was less than desirable.
“To be honest, it was quite frustrating.
“I had fun when I was in free air because with this wing the car felt much better in the middle sector. Just a shame that we were too penalized on the straights and just really struggling to get by.”
Antonelli looks ahead to the Hungarian GP, where he feels overtaking will be difficult. The young rookie aims to improve his qualifying pace to start closer to the front row in Budapest.
“Today I had more confidence in the car. With the new wing, I had more stability and that was helping. Also the car felt more connected, so definitely took some confidence back.
“But now it’s time to really try and work for qualifying because when you start at the front is a completely another story. So it’s important for especially Budapest, where it’s even harder to overtake, to really do a good qualifying in order to start the front.”
