According to Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord, the answer is both simpler and more extraordinary than many imagined. Lord believes the difficult rookie season may actually have accelerated Antonelli’s development rather than delayed it. You can just see his self-belief growing and that's really, really impressive.” For Antonelli, Lord points to a period around last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix when the young Italian fundamentally changed the way he prepared. “We've been very careful and very judicious with how we've tried to support Kimi's introduction to Formula 1,” Lord said.