LONDON :What’s in a name? Mercedes Formula One team boss Toto Wolff has his own answer when it comes to addressing 18-year-old rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Is the Italian, who has taken the seat vacated by seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, an Andrea or a Kimi? Or both?
Antonelli is relaxed about it. For Wolff, it is a matter of performance.
“Kimi, you’re not an Andrea today,’ the Austrian declared over the team radio as Antonelli took pole position for the Miami Grand Prix sprint last Friday, becoming the youngest ever F1 driver on a pole of any sort.
Kimi, a name familiar to any F1 fan from Ferrari’s 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen (although Antonelli was not named after the Finn), sounds racy and has become quickly adopted by commentators.
Andrea is the name of friends and family. It is also the one Wolff uses – as a joke between them according to team insiders – when things could have gone better.
Miami, sixth round of the season, was a weekend of Kimi and Andrea.
After qualifying on pole for the sprint, Antonelli finished 10th – but moved back to seventh after penalties for some of those ahead.
He and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen collided in the pitlane, an unsafe release for which the four-times world champion was penalised, when they came in for a change of tyres in a rain-hit race.
Antonelli drew plaudits also for the way he handled the incident, and averted something worse by continuing down the pitlane.
He qualified third for Sunday’s race, with teammate George Russell fifth, but ended up sixth with Russell third.
Wolff told reporters, referring to Kimi throughout, that Antonelli’s single lap speed was a high point.
“That’s another proof of his talent and a good indication of how the future can be,” he added, recognising the Italian lacked experience of managing the tyres and finding the right references.
“(Race engineer Peter) Bono (Bonnington) really tried to guide him but when you’re in that car, it’s not easy. And I think it’s just part of the learning curve, it’s nothing that is disappointing or not.
“Overall, I go away with the feeling that he’s done a good job.”
Antonelli has scored in five of his six races, becoming also the youngest driver ever to lead a Formula One race and set the fastest lap when he did so in Japan.
He is sixth in the standings with 48 points, seven more than Ferrari’s Hamilton and more than four times as many as the combined tally of the other five rookies.
“Everyone just calls me Kimi. But I also like it when someone calls me Andrea Kimi, because at the end also Andrea is part of my name,” the driver told Reuters before the start of the season.
“My closest friends all call me Andrea…then in racing everyone calls me Kimi. But I don’t mind either way.”
