Antonelli 'spooked himself' in Baku as 66-point F1 lead narrows, warns Schiff

Kimi Antonelli still leads the Formula 1 drivers’ championship by 66 points, but a troubled Azerbaijan Grand Prix has prompted pundit Naomi Schiff to warn that the Mercedes teenager is in danger of letting the pressure of his maiden title fight undermine him.

Antonelli arrived in Baku holding an 81-point advantage, only to see it trimmed after team-mate George Russell converted pole position into a race win while the Italian recovered to fifth from 16th on the grid. The gap to Russell, now second in the standings, fell by 15 points across the weekend.

Schiff, a former W Series driver and F1 pundit, said Antonelli’s body language throughout the Baku weekend suggested a driver beginning to tighten under the weight of expectation. “I felt like when I was looking at Kimi on track this weekend — and not just the mistake that he made in qualifying, but just his general demeanour on track — it felt like a driver who’s driving for that championship, but has almost spooked himself a little bit too much,” she said. “He feels a little bit stiff in the car because he doesn’t want to make a mistake. And that’s also not the right place to be in.”

Schiff drew on Antonelli’s own recent history to argue the situation is recoverable. “He just needs to get out of his head. Last season he was in his head a lot as well. He managed to get that under control, and then he was driving more freely. He came into the beginning of the season a new man.”

Her concern, however, is that the stakes are now considerably higher. “I really hope that he’s not going to spook himself out of this because it is so easy. It’s such a psychological game that once you get in your head, you start worrying about things. You almost bring those things to yourself. So I hope he can free himself up.”

Despite the setback, Antonelli’s 66-point cushion over Russell remains substantial with races still to run. Whether the 18-year-old can rediscover the free-flowing form that built that lead will likely define whether Mercedes ends the season with a first-year driver as world champion.