Antonelli reveals Spa F1 test breakthrough in curing core weakness

Andrea Kimi Antonelli says a breakthrough test at Spa-Francorchamps was key to convincing Mercedes he had overcome a key weakness and deserved an F1 race seat.

The young Italian had long been in the frame to become Lewis Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes for 2025, but early testing in an old F1 car had exposed some elements he needed to improve on.

For while there was little doubt about his raw speed and ability to deliver fast individual laps, he was still lacking early on when it came to showing consistency over race-distance runs.

But he says that a step change on that front was made during a post Belgian Grand Prix test before the summer break, and that proved enough for Mercedes to commit to him for next year.

Reflecting on his testing progress in a 2022 car during an appearance at “Il Festival dello Sport” organised by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Antonelli singled out the Spa run as significant.

“During the TPC [testing of previous cars] tests, one thing that impressed them was how quickly I got to the limit and how quickly I got to the target lap times that Mercedes wanted,” he said.

“But I have to say that the factor on which I struggled the most during testing was the race pace.

“However, in the last two days of testing at Spa, I improved the race pace considerably, and that pushed Mercedes to sign me.

“Until that moment, they had an idea that they wanted to put me in the Mercedes car in 2025, but first they wanted to see if I could improve those weaknesses I had.

“During the Spa tests, I made a good step forward and that convinced Mercedes.

“In fact, before the summer break, I had a call with [Toto] Wolff, my engineer and other people from Mercedes. It was there they told me that I would be one of their drivers in 2025. It was a good moment.”

While Mercedes is playing down expectations for Antonelli, especially after his first FP1 run at Monza ended with a crash after just ten minutes, he is quite ambitious in terms of what he wants to deliver.

In fact, Antonelli says that the target is to become a race winner in his rookie F1 season.

“I feel ready for F1,” he explained. “In terms of speed, I think it won’t be a problem. The only thing where there will be a lot of work to do is about how to manage the weekend in the best possible way and also to learn all the procedures. So, there will be a…