The Mercedes driver showed up incognito at the Daytona track in Milton Keynes and set the fastest lap time on the wet track
The operators of the Daytona track in Milton Keynes, near Red Bull’s headquarters, are used to big names. Drivers like Sergio Perez, Isack Hadjar, and stars of the caliber of Tom Cruise have taken their go-karts there. And on Saturday, when a young man showed up on a rainy afternoon with his curly hair covered by a wide-brimmed hat and his face hidden behind sunglasses, they didn’t suspect a thing. “Is there a race with an open spot?” the stranger asked. “Yes, but first you have to attend the briefing with the other drivers… to go over the rules and flags.”
The young man, however, is anything but a stranger. That’s because hidden under a white hoodie is Kimi Antonelli, who has absolutely no desire to stay away from the wheel. But the track managers don’t know this, so the question is inevitable: “We need a name… you know, if you’re lucky, you could end up on this leaderboard here,” they explain, pointing to the scoreboard displaying the lap times of several of the Bologna native’s colleagues. “Shovlin… my name is Henry Shovlin,” he replies. The fact that he shares a name with Mercedes’ technical director didn’t seem to raise any red flags, so Kimi was escorted to the room where the other drivers were attending the briefing before heading out onto the track. “He sat in a corner,” the British track’s social media accounts report, “and listened carefully to the entire explanation.”
HELMET OFF— It’s time to hit the track. No Mercedes racing suit, no F1 helmet. Kimi doesn’t want the other drivers to know there’s a Formula One driver among them. So he climbs into the rental kart and waits for the lights to go out. It’s pouring rain, and he wins by a landslide. No one’s even close behind him. Once the race is over, everyone rushes toward the big tent to take shelter from the relentless rain, and a question spreads among the drivers: “Who’s that guy who was lapping three seconds faster than everyone else?” And out from behind an anonymous white helmet emerges none other than Kimi Antonelli. Taking off his helmet, the Bolognese driver poses for a photo with everyone and then strikes a pose in front of the famous leaderboard: his name, of course, is there, and his time is the fastest on a wet track, 1’24’’500. Alex Albon, in the rain, had been five seconds slower…
