Kimi Antonelli makes brutal ‘everything was falling apart’ confession
Kimi Antonelli has revealed the true depths of his mid-season slump.
Kimi Antonelli has admitted that “it felt like everything was just falling apart” midway through the F1 2025 season.
Antonelli joined the grid in place of Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes amid a wave of hype following an impressive junior career.
Mid-season downturn left Kimi Antonelli ‘afraid’ he wouldn’t recover
An eye-catching performance in tricky conditions in Australia got the season off to a bright start, before a difficult spell through the middle of the year began to raise questions.
Changes to the car’s suspension late in the year, reverting to a previous spec, which saw Antonelli’s confidence grow, and his performances increase.
The teenager ended the year with three podiums and 150 points, helping Mercedes to third in the Constructors’ Championship alongside now-veteran teammate George Russell.
“This year has been massive learning curve for me,” Antonelli told PlanetF1.com and other media.
“Definitely going into Mercedes first year, I think was a massive opportunity.
“Obviously, I was more under spotlight, you know, more under pressure. But I think you know, that really helped me to go to grow even faster.
“I’ve had my ups and my downs,” he added.
“Obviously, had a very long difficult period, but being able to overcome it made me stronger, was kind of a small victory for me.”
That period coincided with the introduction of a new rear suspension, which arrived as part of a package for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in May.
It’s thought the change was made with a view to improving the aero platform of the W16.
But after six races, the squad reverted, leading to an immediate upturn in performance as Russell finished sixth in Hungary.
“I think that we tried to solve a problem with an Imola upgrade, with a mechanical upgrade,” said team boss Toto Wolff at the time.
“That may have not solved an issue but it made something, let something else creep into the car and that was an instability that basically took all confidence from the drivers and it took us a few races to figure that out.
“Obviousl also misled a little bit by the Montreal win, we think maybe that’s not so bad and we came to the conclusion it needs to go off, it went off and the car is back to solid form.”
That five race run through Europe had an impact on Antonelli, with the Italian admitting he began to doubt himself.
“I was also afraid that I wouldn’t have been able to get out of it,” he confessed.
During that period, Wolff even confessed that his performances weren’t up top scratch as the 19-year-old struggled to recapture his early season pace, consistency, and confidence.
Those remarks, Antonelli admitted, served only to heap on the pressure during what was already a difficult period.
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“That was in Monza,” he said.
“During the European season, because I had a very strong start, up until Canada, I had a really strong first part of the season, obviously expectation got higher and high.
“Then, the European season came, and it felt like everything was just falling apart, and just see how everything was just not working.
“Of course, Mercedes were already fighting back then with the P2. We were losing points and obviously then also the team started to put a bit of pressure.
“That added up. That is normal. That is how it is.”
Antonelli attributes the mental turnaround to discussions with Wolff and his engineer, Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington in the wake of the Italian Grand Prix.
The out come was a reset, a compartmentalising of the European leg of the season with a view to recapturing what happened in the opening stanza of the campaign.
“Obviously I was also not happy with how things were going, and I was just getting more and more frustrated because I was thinking too much about the final result,” Antonelli said.
“I was trying to fulfil the team’s expectation. But it just was snowball effect, and I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere.”
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend was a turning point. He finished fourth, his first top-five result since the Canadian Grand Prix, and only his third points result since that event.
There were more points in Singapore and Mexico before a well-earned podium in Interlagos, where he impressed by seeing off the charging Max Verstappen.
The disqualification of the two McLarens in Las Vegas left him third in the final results, leaving behind the rough run through Europe.
“I’m quite happy with the season, but mostly I’m happy with how much I grew and how much I matured as a person,” Antonelli reflected.
“Next year, I’m much more prepared and much more in control of the situation.”
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