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Simon: Toto, first real time he's come out—yes, he still believes in him—but said “underwhelming”, really, from the start to the finish (in terms of Kimi). Knowing Toto as you do. What does that mean when he gives you a rocket or a public admonishment like that? What did it mean to you and what do you think he's trying to achieve with it?

Nico: Yeah, it's a surprising one because at the moment, the only choice you really have is just give Kimi the most time possible in the most calm way possible. And that means also not criticizing him publicly. And so this change of tone from Tota for the first time ever, usually there's a reason behind that. Toto is very calculated in his comments. Perhaps he's wanting to put some pressure on Kimi and his family to try a different approach, modify their approach, review their approach. Not—yeah, not, not sure there.

But the fact of the matter is that Kimi is a generational talent. We all know that. But it's more difficult to him than we all thought so far. And it's a bit strange that it's still so difficult. Like if you look at the statistics, in racing it's 19 to 0 to George and in qualifying it's 17 to 2 to George. Then if you put in (team) mistakes, it will be like 15 to 1 probably. So it's, it's a bit, yeah, I don't know. It's, it's a really hard one and unfortunate one because we all want him to go well, he can go well. We know that it's—yeah, I don't, I don't know. Yeah. But the, the, the clock starts to tick at some point also, you know, and yeah, tough one.

Simon: I mean, that's what Jacques Villeneuve was pointing out. He was quite harsh actually in his assessment and pulled those punches when we're talking about it in Zandvoort. But across, on top of that, of course, but well, Kimi had all these promotional events over the weekend in Monza. He's also got black-and-white flag, repeated track limit violations and a five-second penalty for erratic driving when he was going wheel to wheel with Alex Albon, which dropped him from 8th to 9th place finish. So it was just a litany of errors again over the weekend. And as Toto was saying, he's carrying trauma from session to session and it's not giving him any respite.

Crofty: Yeah, and he had a bad start in the race and never really recovered to get into a rhythm, I didn't think, after that—I remember talking to Kimi at the start of the year and, and he said that the crash at Parabolica in FP1 last year was still very much preying on his mind. We were actually, we're talking in Bahrain and he, and he's still kind of struggling a bit with that. And, and I, I wonder if maybe because of his age or, or the person that Kimi is, he does dwell on the negative a bit more than than other drivers and, and some of his other peers would.

And if that's the case, maybe what he actually needs is an arm around his shoulder and a confidence boost from the team that says, "you're definitely our driver for next year. Don't worry." Yeah, we, this is a rookie year, we believe in you. And I agree with Nico. I think he is an exceptional talent. And we're going to publicly state that now because he still, you know, officially hasn't got a contract for next year. What's Mercedes waiting for—what's their option, the reserve drivers is at Cadillac. So who would they get in if it wasn't Kimi Antonelli? And I don't think they want to bring anyone else in to replace Kimi Antonelli. So just give him some public backing and see if that makes a difference. And, and the fact that he's got that drive for next year helps him just to kind of get rid of some of the negativity that some of his recent performances might be kind of building up. And that's just a bit of a suggestion, but I think—I just think, he needs a bit of help. He needs a bit of a, of a reason to smile at the moment.

Nico: But I said that a couple of weeks or months ago even—give him the contract, because you need to give him whatever you can at the moment, just to help him with his confidence. So give him the contract anyways. In F1, you know that worst, worst case, you can still get out of that then during the winter, but you obviously don't have to say that now. But so, yeah, I would also consider that, but it's, it's a, it's a tough one. My goodness, I don't—

But yes, Crofty, what you're saying is he is kind of a personality like Lando or like myself, if I may add myself to this, more vulnerable, more sensitive, more dwelling on the negativities, scared of not being good enough, scared of not doing well enough. And he's doing the same little unfortunate thing that Lando does that even when like Lando dwell also communicates so much around his mistakes and things like, now we had him on the sky microphone after qualifying. And by all means, the qualifying was fantastic. He was only four hundredths from George Russell, so great qualifying. He could have just focused on, “Hey, that was good. Yeah, I'm really happy actually. I felt better for the first time in qualifying. Really happy to be right there with George.” But instead, he spent most of the time speaking about, “Yeah, that mistake in FP2. It's still hanging in there for me now” and “I need to try and find a way to avoid that.” And, and that's something where someone needs to tell him that as well, because it's something you can actually quite easily adapt. You just say “Hey Kimi, something that could help you—just, just focus on the good things from now on going forward. Don't, don't repeat talks about anything that happened in the past that's negative when talking to media, because it has an impact and it's it's a wave that you're pushing on all the time. So just go positive now.”

It's something—You know what? I'll. I might actually write him. Why not? I don't have his number, but I'll write him somehow. Because that's an easy, easy advice. Yeah.

Crofty: You did it to Lando, he never got back to you, did he?

Има нощи в които не знам какво ми е...сън не ме хваща от мисли. Има моменти в които се въздържам да не те потърся, колкото и да го искам. Има нощи в които се обвинявам за всичко, което преживяхме. Има моменти в които много ми липсваш, но те няма, а те искам като луд. В мислите в ума в сърцето винаги те има. Не се забравяш.