“He’s the Polar Opposite”: Fans Unsurprised by How Kimi Raikkonen Treated Kimi Antonelli on First Meet

Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been stealing the headlines around his F1 debut ever since Mercedes announced him as their full-time driver last year. So far, the Italian prodigy has lived up to the hype around his talent with his ongoing points-scoring streak.

Now, it does sound like a familiar story, given that his namesake, Kimi Raikkonen, had a similar trajectory to F1 back in 2001. Even Raikkonen reached the pinnacle of motorsport by making his debut for Sauber after just 23 starts in the junior categories.

His talent immediately caught McLaren’s eye, and the next season, he was in a race-winning car for them. From there on, his stints at Ferrari and Lotus only further solidified Raikkonen’s legendary status in F1.

Having witnessed the Finnish driver etch his legacy in the sport in his childhood days, Antonelli would’ve developed some affinity towards him. However, when he went to express the same to Raikkonen himself in 2018, the Iceman just snubbed him by giving no reaction.

“I met him when I was quite little, maybe 2018? The first time I met him, I understood why they called him the ‘Iceman’ – I was super excited and he did not react,” the 18-year-old recalled during the Bahrain GP presser on Thursday.

Now, fans weren’t surprised that Raikkonen would’ve made a nonchalant gesture, as they contrasted his personality traits with those of Antonelli. “With how energetic Antonelli is, we may say he’s the polar opposite of Kimi,” a Redditor commented on this news, highlighting how different the Mercedes prodigy is from Raikkonen.

Another user further delved deep into this theory, stating that perhaps the regional difference between their homelands is the reason for this contrast in personalities. “Both literally and figuratively, since one’s from Northern Europe and the other’s from Southern.”

Firstly, Raikkonen hails from Finland, which lies in the Nordic region in the northernmost part of Europe. On the contrary, Antonelli has grown up in the Mediterranean region in Italy, way down south of Finland. No wonder they seem to have a cultural difference and also behave differently from each other.

Raikkonen has always displayed a monosyllabic demeanor while speaking in media interviews and press conferences. Except for Sebastian Vettel, who was his teammate at Ferrari from 2014 to 2018, rarely has any other person in the F1 paddock made him talk much.

The Finn was always a man of few words and was rarely in the thick of any controversies with his fellow drivers. One fan even joked that if Antonelli tells Raikkonen that they have the same name, he would just casually say “Bwoah”—something that became an iconic response of his to any question from the media.

So, unless he has anything to do with Antonelli and Mercedes, it is highly unlikely he would speak with the Italian. However, for his betterment in the sport, the former Ferrari driver giving a minute or two of his time someday would certainly make Antonelli’s day.