\n<\/p>\n
Still, though, he admits to be “definitely surprised” at how much progress he has made.<\/p>\n
“I knew that I was going to be better than my first year,” he says. “Obviously, because I think last year, towards the end of the season, I started to put things more together, starting to extract more performance. But still, it was still not great.<\/p>\n
“Whereas this year, it’s a lot different. Also as well, with the first win,<\/a> the first pole, it took a lot of weight off my shoulder.”<\/p>\n Antonelli has blossomed. Everything seems to be coming so easily to him. If he drops back in a race, he recovers seamlessly and quickly. Overtaking moves are done quickly and decisively. There’s not been a circuit on which he has lacked pace.<\/p>\n Russell, by contrast, has admitted to struggling and – while not trying to take anything away from Antonelli, who he is always quick to praise – has expressed his opinion that his his driving style does not suit this year’s new cars.<\/p>\n All of which raises a key question – how much of what is happening this year is Antonelli stepping it up, and how much Russell falling back?<\/p>\n “That’s a very difficult question,” Antonelli says. “I’ve definitely stepped up.<\/p>\n “This year definitely everything is new. So it requires also a little bit of a different approach. And trying to adapt to a different car, which hasn’t been easy.”<\/p>\n His consistency this year, he says, has come from the fact he has found “a nice rhythm in the season”.<\/p>\n “I always try to follow my routines,” Antonelli says, “the way I approach the weekend. I try to approach it all the time the same.<\/p>\n “I’m still finding my way, but I’ve found a way that helps me to be consistent and also helps me to be consistently ready when I go in the car.”<\/p>\n There are still moments when he misjudges things, though. He cites the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, just days after his outstanding win in Monaco,<\/a> one of the most dominant at that storied track for years.<\/p>\n “Monaco was a very high moment for me in the season, and then I went to Barcelona and I was probably a bit too excited, especially over a single lap,” he says.<\/p>\n “So I was overdriving, I was chasing the lap time and the result didn’t come in qualifying. I was actually a bit far back and didn’t do a good lap.<\/p>\n “But that’s because I was trying to do a bit too much after a very high moment in my career. And then I understood that that is not the way.”<\/p>\n