Kimi Antonelli delivers brutally honest revelation after debut F1 crash

Kimi Antonelli has revealed to approaching his early F1 career with over-caution after crashing during his first practice appearance last year.

Antonelli was handed his F1 weekend debut at the Italian Grand Prix 10 months ago, one day before he was confirmed as a full-time driver for the current season.

However, his session lasted just 10 minutes as he pushed too hard into the final corner on soft tyres and spun into a barrier.

The Italian has since navigated the initial phase of his career as a full-time driver warily, as the mistake prompted an approach change to ensure it did not happen again.

“In Canada, I was a bit too conservative, especially in free practice,” Antonelli told the media, including RacingNews365

“Because if you look at the trend in practice, I would always arrive quite late to the session.

“I would always set my time quite late in the session, just because it kind of required many laps to get there.

“I truly believe I overcorrected after what happened in Monza, and now I'm a bit too on the safe side.”

Antonelli secured his career-best result last time out in Montreal, taking to the podium for the first time.

The 18-year-old is looking to use the breakthrough result to take the next step and enter each race weekend from a place of higher confidence.

“Results like this also help you to move forward and to take the step. Now is the time to do this step,” he said.

“Nowadays, F1 is super tight, especially when you see qualifying, the gaps are just so close that even a tenth can put you on the back foot.

“So it's really important to be on top of my game, and that's why I cannot keep arriving in qualifying with so many question marks and not the right confidence on how much grip there is and having to explore too much and to learn too much.

“Now is the time, especially in practice, to get back a bit closer to Monza - not exactly like Monza, but get closer to that to arrive ready in qualifying.”