Very positive balance sheet and excellent signs for the future Kimi Antonelli at the end of the two-day test which took place between Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th April at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit in Imola. The young driver from Bologna, currently involved in the Formula 2 championship with Team Prema after having won everything in the last two years between Formula 4 and Formula Regional, immediately demonstrated an excellent adaptation to the speeds and aerodynamic load of a Formula One before at Red Spielberg’s Bull Ring (with the 2021 W12) and then on the Santerno circuit.
The 17 year old from Casalecchio di Reno had the opportunity to drive the Mercedes W13 on the Romagna tracki.e. the first of this new generation of ground effect single-seaters used for the 2022 World Championship. A particularly challenging test therefore for the Italian driver, who had to deal with a car without bellies (the concept was used zero sidepods) difficult to fine-tune and govern also due to excessive porpoising.
Tested with a gradual work program, Antonelli responded by closing day 1 flawlessly and with a very constant pace in the various long-runs of 10-12 laps with hard tyres. On Tuesday the Brackley technicians decided to raise the difficulty coefficient, fitting the medium compound and shortening the runs (with less petrol in the tank) to progressively lower the lap times also thanks to an increasingly advanced engine mapping.
In the afternoon session of the second day of private testing, the product of the Mercedes Junior Team therefore earned the opportunity to push hard and chase the performance. After having improved considerably with the medium compound, always without errors, Kimi finally completed a couple of runs on soft tires and only 15kg of fuel. The time set by the Emilian in the last time-attack was truly remarkable, on‘1’17” lowalthough it remains impossible to make comparisons with the 2022 race weekend (which took place in the fourth round of the season and with variable weather conditions).
To find a more indicative reference, Oscar Piastri’s performance with the McLaren MCL36 in mid-March in Imola was in fact taken into consideration. The Australian, with the same tires (soft), lapped in 1’17″9 at the end of the day. Of course, that version of the papaya machine was not exceptional and the environmental conditions found by Antonelli in recent days on the banks of the Santerno were optimal, but the results of the blue would have positively surprised Toto Wolff’s men.
The scenario of seeing him in action “among the greats” already in mid-May during the Emilia-Romagna GP on Williams in place of Logan Sargeant (as feared by Joe Saward) seems absolutely utopian, also because the FIA should grant him a special exemption as he is not yet an adult and does not have a driving licence, his candidacy to replace Lewis Hamilton in Mercedes as early as 2025 remains strong at this point.
