'I’ll stretch your neck like a chicken'

In Formula 1, it’s often said that nothing is unimprovable, only unimproved. Even a grand prix-winning driver can have cause to believe they could have done better.

That’s a lesson Kimi Antonelli is absorbing from his team and his family, having collected two warnings for straying beyond track limits on his way to winning last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. And as Antonelli revealed, his father’s phrasing was rather more stringent than the calming tones of Mercedes engineer Peter Bonnington during the race.

“I guess you guys know I like to use the track sometimes a bit too much,” he told media including Motorsport.com ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. “It's something I'm trying to work on. I look back at Spa and the two track limits I did were very stupid – I was like, ‘What the heck am I doing?’

“Sometimes in a race I might need to use them. But if I use them when I don't need to, then I might find myself in trouble.

“So, for sure, it's something I'm working on. Definitely my dad, it was one of the first things he told me after the race [in Belgium].

“He said, ‘Congrats, but…’ – always a but, you know – he told me, ‘If I see you doing another track limit for nothing, I'm gonna stretch your neck like a chicken’.”

Kimi Antonelli strayed beyond the track limits at Spa (Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images)

It’s in the nature of racing drivers to push the boundaries of what is possible or acceptable, hence the existence of penalties for exceeding track limits. In some corners it’s possible to find a laptime advantage by short-cutting the inside kerb or running over the exit kerb.

The latter is the more common, especially if the corner is followed by a long straight, since the drivers are trying to carry a high corner speed – but the practice is frowned upon for safety reasons. Going off-track increases the risk of an accident and can drag gravel and debris back onto the track surface.

Exceeding track limits during qualifying means a driver’s time will be deleted, while if they do it four times during a race, they earn a five-second time penalty.

This has already happened to Antonelli twice this year. In Barcelona it had no effect on the outcome because Antonelli retired due to a technical problem, and the penalty was applied after the race (itself controversial, because the FIA’s detection system initially missed the fourth violation).

In the Miami sprint race, it cost Antonelli points because, having finished fourth on the road, he was demoted to sixth when the penalty was applied. Fortunately for him, the sprint races pay fewer points anyway.

It’s notable that since Barcelona, Bonnington has been careful to strike a balance between encouraging Antonelli to push harder when necessary and providing early warnings about track limits – generally after two ‘pings’ rather than three, when the danger of a penalty would become critical.

“Having a great team around me, having a great family around me has helped me throughout this journey so far and is still doing,” said Antonelli.

“My dad is kind of like my rock because we share so many things together, and I always like hearing his point of view after sessions, after a race, after qualifying because that's also how we've been doing ever since karting.

“And also having someone like him next to me in this journey, especially in a year like this, is very important to get the family support, especially from someone that knows me the best out of anyone. So, for sure he's still playing a massive role.”