Antonelli and Sinner. The intertwined stories of two ordinary prodigies

“I want to keep my feet on the ground, to always remain the same Kimi.” “The most important thing is that success has never changed me; I’m still the same Jannik who left home at thirteen and a half.” Antonelli and Sinner didn’t consult each other, but just a few hours and many kilometres apart, they echoed the same sentiment. They, who are the most envied (and probably most sought-after) young men in Italy, above all like to be normal. Their words are an extraordinary ode to normality which, for two special individuals like them, may seem like a contradiction, but which is in fact the best message for all young people.

“Of course, I’ve matured, but I think I’ve remained a normal lad. Normality is the most important thing; it’s what connects me to people, both at work and in my private life,” added Jannik after speaking about values earlier this week, on his first morning as Allianz’s Global Brand Ambassador. “Kimi is a very laid-back lad, a normal person. I think that’s what connects us more than anything else,” Sinner continued, referring to Antonelli, whom he had congratulated on his world title.

“We live in a world where there’s so much attention, so many people who want to get into your life and you never know why. But I don’t think I’ve ever lost my sense of normality,” he concludes, explaining the value that matters most to him. Being normal. Spending time with his family, playing on the simulator, washing his car by hand – even if it’s a Ferrari. Kimi does it too; his, of course, is a Mercedes. Jannik photographed him; Kimi told the story. Normal lives led by extraordinary young men.

It is noteworthy that Jannik’s hobby is the driving simulator he has had installed at home, while Kimi plays tennis for recreation. These are stories that not even the most advanced artificial intelligence could generate, as they would appear too implausible to be credible. And yet, that is precisely the case.

They wear watches from one sponsor and suits from another, but if it were up to them, they’d be in tracksuit bottoms or shorts and trainers all day. Kimi lives on his parents’ pocket money because otherwise he’d spend it all on cars, says his mum Veronica. Jannik probably stopped getting pocket money ages ago and has started buying the four-wheeled toys he loves so much himself.

They describe themselves as friends and would certainly know how to spend whole days together. Kimi would ask Jannik for the secrets of his tennis, and Jannik would ask Kimi how to tackle a certain bend at full speed. “I’ve always said that one day you’ll see me in a racing car…”, Sinner joked recently. “I can’t wait to organise a day out go-karting or in a GT3 with Jannik, who’s a friend,” Kimi said.

“What Kimi has managed to achieve is incredible. At twenty, he seems to do everything with astonishing ease. It looks normal, but it isn’t. He went through some tough times in his first season, worked incredibly hard and learnt to handle certain situations with a speed that only a phenomenon can possess. It moves me deeply to watch him.” The words Jannik dedicated to Kimi could easily have been spoken by Antonelli when discussing Sinner. At times, it feels as though they are looking in a mirror. Recall the ease with which Jannik won at Wimbledon or in Rome. They know how to turn their ordinariness into something special. They are reminiscent of Francesco Renga and Ermal Meta when they sang: “What’s wrong with being normal?”.

That said, the fact that Jannik and Kimi, despite their ordinary lives, have managed to become exceptional is another matter altogether. They had the talent, and they’ve been working at it since they were children. They sacrificed part of their youth to pursue their dreams, becoming number one in their respective sports. And now that they’re exceptional, they want to hold on to their ordinary lives at all costs.

Kimi manages it a bit better because he has fewer protective filters and Mercedes lets him express himself as he pleases, whilst Jannik sometimes seems afraid to mingle with people. But perhaps it’s also a difference in character – the sort that exists between someone from South Tyrol and someone from Emilia, between a lad from the mountains and one from the plains.

“I know Kimi and his father a bit. They’re ordinary people. Kimi isn’t the sort of person who needs to be seen in a fancy car; he’s a very laid-back lad. I think this ordinariness is what connects us more than anything else,” Jannik went on to say, revealing another similarity between the two: their families. Present, but not overbearing. Affectionate, but not smothering.

“Marco, Kimi’s dad, who used to race himself, had a team and knew his stuff, never said a word to me about managing his son when he was racing against me in karts,” says Dino Chiesa, with whom Kimi took his first steps in the sport.

Whilst many coaches believe that the best asset for young players is to be orphans, in the case of Sinner and Antonelli we can safely say that this is not the case. Jannik and Kimi need the reassurance of their parents – the kind that their father Marco provides for his son by standing by his side in the pits every race weekend.

The other day, Sinner described Darren Cahill as almost a second father to him, given the way he had advised him through difficult times. A bit like Toto Wolff is to Kimi. They’re identical in this respect too.

This development allows Ferrari fans to dream, as at some point Jannik decided to part ways with Darren to embark on a new adventure with a new manager. It remains to be seen whether, at some point in the distant future, Kimi might also choose to leave his long-time mentor.