Kimi Antonelli’s start to the Miami Grand Prix should have the grid on notice

MIAMI, Florida — Despite starting in pole position, the Sprint race did not go Kimi Antonelli’s way at the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.

But the young Mercedes phenom just put himself in a position to deliver even bigger points tomorrow.

While Antonelli lost the lead in the F1 Sprint race to Oscar Piastri in Turn 1, ultimately settling for a seventh-place finish, the Mercedes rookie delivered his best Grand Prix qualifying result of his F1 career later in the day, qualifying third behind only pole-sitter Max Verstappen, and McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Antonelli said on Friday he was over the moon with his pole position. Speaking Saturday after qualifying he told the media just how “happy” he was to bounce back after a “disappointing” start to the day.

“Yeah, I mean, this weekend is going well so far. Was a bit disappointing this morning, but it was good to bounce back this way and yeah, I struggled a little bit during the quali,” said Antonelli in the FIA Press Conference. “I didn’t have such a clean run like I had yesterday. But yeah, that last lap was quite good. I was a bit too greedy in Turn 1 starting the lap, but the rest of the lap was quite good, so I’m happy with it.”

Beyond being happy with the results, Antonelli set forth that he was growing happier with the W16, the team’s challenger for the 2025 season.

“Definitely,” began Antonelli when asked if he was happier in the car.

“I mean, 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,” continued the young driver. “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.”

Pressed on a “target” for the Grand Prix Antonelli demurred, but made it clear he just wants to have a “good pace in the race” on Sunday.

“I don’t really want to say because it always goes terribly wrong! So I’m just going try to have a good start and then try to set a good pace and stay with Max and Lando,” said Antonelli.

“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,” continued the driver. “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.”

What might be a scary thought for the rest of the grid is that this is just Antonelli’s sixth F1 race and his first time at the Miami Grand Prix.

Soon the calendar shifts to Europe, where he has much more experience.

“There’s still room for improvement, but yeah, I feel better and better in the car every weekend,” added Antonelli. “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.”

Imagine that.