We took the video above on the grid at the Belgian GP earlier this season. Just twelve months ago, Spa and Monza were arguably the lowest points of Kimi Antonelli’s young F1 career, and even his mentor and #1 supporter, Toto Wolff, publicly gave him the hurry-up! The teenager was forced to grow or break — no prizes for guessing what he did!

Today he showed no mercy to his teammate George Russell and cemented his incredible speed with The Fastest Lap at the very end of his home Grand Prix at the Mighty Monza.

But perhaps the most striking thing about Kimi is not even the speed.

Meet him in person and you quickly notice how sincere and open he is. There is no obvious arrogance or manufactured image. He is fiercely competitive, yet remarkably polite and genuine — something you can see even in the way he looks after his little sister.

So, has Toto Wolff discovered the next Max Verstappen?

Today, we got a pretty good answer.

Kimi Antonelli’s reign have just begun. 🏆🇮🇹

Why are Ferrari’s drivers fighting each other much harder than they are fighting anyone else on the grid?

Because the fight for team dominance is extremely fierce.

On one side is Ferrari’s golden boy, Charles Leclerc. On the other is the most successful F1 driver of all time, Lewis Hamilton.

On the face of it, there is no obvious explanation for why Hamilton and Ferrari seem to be so openly lost when it comes to communicating with each other.

Some experts say Ferrari treats everyone inside the team as an employee — nobody is bigger than the team, and everyone is expected to fall in line. Hamilton, however, clearly wants to be different and seems to show it in many ways, from extravagant clothing choices to passive-aggressive opposition and quiet, PR-conscious behaviour that constantly pushes the boundaries of team policy.

So, at the start of today’s race, Hamilton’s attack down the inside of Turn 1 was perhaps a little too aggressive towards his teammate. Leclerc’s response was probably one step too far as well.

The net result?

A net loss of valuable positions for Ferrari.

And there is another problem: the psychological pressure inside the team is clearly taking its toll on the drivers.

Leclerc’s mistake may well be just the tip of the iceberg. On Lap 2, he made multiple mistakes before eventually going off at the Parabolica — bringing echoes of Monaco and Barcelona this season, and most notably Paul Ricard in 2022.

Something is clearly not right and as Juan Pablo Montoya put it:

Before the start of today’s Italian GP at the Mighty Monza, Sebastian Vettel took Michael Schumacher’s championship-winning Ferrari F2002 V10 for a few laps.

The sound, the agility, the visibly light and nimble car — it was a stark contrast to today’s modern “energy formula”.

The yo-yo racing we saw today, with different deployment strategies, might look entertaining to some of the newer fans but to the purists it looks — and feels — artificial.

F1 drivers and engineers should be constantly striving for the Fastest Laps possible, not for the most energy-efficient harvesting and deployment, super-clipping and everything else that comes with the current “energy” formula.

And have you noticed something interesting?

How many onboard live telemetry graphics did you see today? The details that every real F1 fan loves — speed, G-force, engine RPM, gear position, battery charge level and so on.

Exactly. Zero.

And why is that? Because the engineers are increasingly forced to manage and preserve energy rather than simply chase maximum performance. At Monza, we even saw cars staying in seventh gear on the long straights instead of using eighth, as part of that energy-management strategy.

It is obvious that F1 is changing and moving further away from the raw speed and sound of those magnificent V10s. And perhaps that is why it is good, from time to time, to be reminded of what F1 should really be about.

Fast drivers. Exceptional engineers. Maximum performance.

Not algorithms.

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That’s a chequred flag 🏁 for today

Tomorrow, best🏎️