Kimi Antonelli makes eye-catching Mercedes F1 admission after 'conscious decision'

Kimi Antonelli does not believe that the Kimi of "12 months ago" would have been able to pull off his comeback drive in the Azerbaijan GP, after making a "conscious decision."

After clipping the Turn 1 wall during qualifying, Antonelli started 16th in Baku, his first major mistake since crashing in FP3 in the season-opening Australian GP in March. 

During the race, he recovered to fifth place, earning 10 points, and limiting how far race-winner George Russell could eat into the 81-point deficit to the Italian. Antonelli arrives in Malaysia for the Bahrain GP 66 points clear of the Briton. 

However, unlike the recent Italian GP where he stormed from 19th on the grid to equal the record for the second furthest back a driver has won a race from, Antonelli could not take the same risks in Baku, owing to the walls, which don't feature at Monza.

Reflecting on his personal growth from 2025, Antonelli described how 12 months ago, he would not have been capable of assessing the situation and deciding simply to bank the 10 points he was able to collect rather than risking more for a potential no-score.

"I don't think the Kimi of 12 months ago would have been capable [of the drive in Baku]," Antonelli told media, including RacingNews365.

"I think it was one of those weekends and one of those races where I had to accept that I couldn't drive on the limit because yes, I was driving under the limit, but it was a conscious decision that I made after the start of the race.

"Because I also felt I didn't feel so confident on pushing 100% the whole race. So I didn't want to make mistakes, so I just took this conscious decision, and it was one of those races where  I had to be happy with a P5, because in this case, it could have been much worse. 

"It could have been a DNF, but it was still a decent drive and good points that will always make the difference at the end of the season. But definitely, I feel, looking back at the race, I think it was much better than what I thought right after it because of the decision I took."

The article continues below.

Antonelli's decision

Explaining how he carried this out, Antonelli revealed the instruction he had told himself to ensure he did not suffer a first driver-related non-score of the year, with his Barcelona and Silverstone non-scores being car-related.

"I didn't really like driving under the limit. I felt a bit too slow, but the learning was that sometimes you have to accept these kinds of situations," he continued.

"You have to set to to settle for a result that even you know you didn't expect or you didn't want; you settle for a P5, and in the race, I learnt even more about myself, about how I think, how I react to certain things, and trust me, it was very hard to make that decision after I started the race to just sit back and take it. 

"Baku was the first time where I actually had to tell to myself: 'Look, just take the least amount of risk as possible, and just take advantage of other people's mistakes and just bring it home.' 

"Because in the end, it was such a disrupted weekend where everything was going wrong from FP1, missing 45 minutes in FP1, 35 minutes in FP2, and crashing in qualifying."