Spaghetti and a kart to drive. The car radio is missing to complete the iconography of the "true Italian", but the rest is all there: Kimi Antonelli lives his extraordinary day in the name of an almost village normality. Yet he is the champion of the day, the most sought after boy of the moment: but the choice to celebrate the historic triumph in Monza without overdoing it, in contrast to what he does on the track, brings him even closer to the fans who definitively crowned him in Monza.
After having climbed 19 positions and returned success to the Italian Formula 1 team on its home track 60 years later, the twenty-year-old served himself a plate of spaghetti directly into the trophy he won. He says he promised, he kept it, causing his social media likes to soar. "First in my house" are the words of the Mercedes driver accompanied by the shot that portrays him while he is still eating the classic tomato sauce on the circuit and the cheering crowd sings another Italian anthem. That 'it must be because I love you' from Rich and Poor and has become a bit of a soundtrack to the winning Italian sport (even the Olympic volleyball players in Paris sang it).
As a triumphant in Monza, Antonelli then returned to his origins: because to metabolize the positive shock of success on his home track you need to normalize. So here he is, less than 24 hours after the comeback show, back behind the wheel, but of a kart: at Franciacorta in Castrezzato, in the Brescia area, the Mercedes driver spent a few hours with his team and re-embraced a discipline that marked the beginning of his career. "Driving is what I like to do - the words of a beaming Antonelli -. It was nice, I hadn't been on a kart since January, and it's always nice to go back to where it all began. Then a day like this together with the team, pure fun, is the best". What pushed him back to driving after such an intense Sunday was "passion. Because I'm very knocked out, I'm quite prepared but you can't say no to karting. It was a day I cared about, it's pure fun but also training".
The triumph in Monza came in a GP in which the twenty-year-old started from the back, due to a change in the power unit resulting in a penalty at the back of the grid: "No one expected, not even me, to win - he reiterated -. To be honest, I thought I would lose a few points, but coming out like this gives you a good boost. At the same time it makes you understand how important it is to take advantage of every single opportunity, because these types of days can make the difference at the end of the year". And the emotions are not dormant: "It's difficult to describe the day we lived, it's a daydream - the national Kimi wrote in the post on social media upon waking -. What I experienced is something I will never forget, the podium in Monza is indescribable, the warmth of all the fans and the sea of people that never ends. I thank those who are making this year special".
Leader of the world championship who, right after the Italian stage, is looking at the final objective more and more as a favourite: and now there is Madrid immediately. Throughout the world they have honored him in every way, master, king, and monumental like the spectacular curve of the renovated Brianza circuit. “But I'm someone who likes to be low profile,” smiles the pilot. His father Marco also remembers this: "He is in a state of grace, but he knows he should never feel like a number 1". Yet he is: even the inveterate Ferrari driver, never tender towards drivers not from Maranello even if Italian, now supports him. How does this happen? Maybe because she loves him...
