F1 Mexico, from Bearman and Antonelli: the FP1s of the rookies

The single-seaters are always the same, stopped in the pits waiting for the start of the first free practice session in the Mexican Formula 1 weekend. Twenty cars surrounded by mechanics and engineers before the start of a fundamental weekend for the fate of the championship, five races at the end of the 2024 season. What has changed, however, are many of the drivers sitting inside those single-seaters, protagonists even for just a few hours of a Formula 1 that bears their name. Five different surnames in the time column dedicated to the drivers, five new numbers on the single-seaters and five faces that speak the language of the future of a sport that is changing generations.

bearman, return with accident

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In the Ferrari garage, the Englishman Oliver Bearman is the first of the young Mexican FP1 rookies to be included in the squad. He fastens his helmet with the help of Andrea Ferrari, Charles Leclerc’s historic athletic trainer, with the relaxed air of someone who already knows procedures and times, emotions and expectations. The first impact with F1 for the young driver of the Ferrari Driver Academy arrived in a much more violent and excited way than that of a more relaxed Friday of free practice: in Jeddah, in the second weekend of the 2024 season, when due to the Carlos Sainz’s appendicitis was called upon to replace the Spanish driver on the red for qualifying and the race. A trial by fire passed with flying colors by Bearman who, already made official in Haas for next year, also ran his second race in Formula 1 in Baku last September – this time with Haas – to replace the disqualified Magnussen. However, unforeseen events in the top series also arrive at moments of less pressure and the FP1 of the nineteen-year-old Englishman ended less than half an hour after the start due to a contact in turn 10 with Alex Albon’s Williams. A misunderstanding between the two which put an end to both of their sessions: the Ferrari driver slowed down at the end of a series of fast corners on the track and Albon, having arrived at that point at high speed, lost control, touching the driver’s car. opponent and then ending up against the barriers.

antonelli under hamilton’s wing

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Free practice ended without problems for the Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli who had promised, before the start of FP1 with Mercedes in Mexico City, that he had “learned the lesson” of Monza, recalling the brutal debut with an accident in free practice a few minutes after the start of his first track session in the top series. “I understood that I have to find speed gradually” explained the young Italian talent who finished the session with the twelfth time, the best among the rookies on the track, completing the planned work together with the team without any problems. Future teammate George Russell closed his session with the best time on the grid but the work of the two Mercedes drivers immediately appeared different: greater fuel load for Antonelli and different single-seater configurations for a track activity never based on the comparison of times for the riders of Toto Wolff’s team. What is more exciting than the results, however, is the image of a symbolic handover with the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton who followed Antonelli’s free practice as a spectator inside the Mercedes garage and hugged Kimi before watching him get into his car, to become familiar with a seat that will belong to the eighteen-year-old Italian full-time next year.

the other three rookies on track

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A first session with new faces also for three other teams on the grid on Friday’s free practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez: the Brazilian Felipe Drugovich driving Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, the Mexican Patricio “Pato” O’Ward in Lando’s McLaren Norris and the Russian Robert Shwartzman on track with Kick Sauber in place of Zhou Guanyu. Complicated FP1 for the rookies, blocked by the red flag caused by Albon and Bearman’s accident and also made more complex by a particularly dirty track in the early stages of the session. The teams therefore chose a precautionary job for all the rookies, without risking compromising the second free practice session for the starting drivers who stopped in the pits during FP1. No astonishing results in terms of data and times for the young drivers who, however, continue to surprise with their relaxed attitude and ability to adapt, daughters of a generation of talents who do not appear frightened by the great machinery of Formula 1, “The simulator gives us it helps a lot” revealed Kimi Antonelli directly from the paddock in Mexico City, describing how great preparation from home leads them to know what they will find once they get out on the track. To arrive relaxed at a future that already bears their name, and of which they are not afraid.