End-of-day report. Post 14, Blanchimont. Subject: the world champion’s race number.
I read the news on Monday, at the closed post, sitting on the camping chair I keep in the boot. Kimi Antonelli, just crowned champion, is entitled to number 1. He is keeping 12. “I think I’ll stay with number 12,” he told Formule1.nl.
Observation. At the post, you don’t see a crown go past. You see a number. You read it, note it in the folder, say it on the radio. A 12 reads very well at Blanchimont. A 1 too, mind you. But a new number has to go on the sheet, and the sheet is mine. I’ve kept it for thirty years.
Context. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris each took number 1 after their titles. Antonelli breaks with that tradition. Number 1 disappears from the grid for the first time since 2021.
Stated reasons. The 12 is a tribute to Ayrton Senna, his idol. It is also his first race number, in Formula 4. He says he is very superstitious and that 1 has never been a lucky number for him. “Every time I had it on my car, it went terribly badly,” he said. He is keeping the 12 to stay grounded and humble.
I don’t judge a superstition. I too have had the same cup of coffee in the thermos for thirty years. The day I changed it, it chucked it down. It always chucks it down, but that’s another matter.
In Mexico, on the title weekend, he refused to get ahead of himself, with several people congratulating him from Friday. At the post, nobody is congratulated on Friday either. We wait for the chequered flag. Then we pack up.
No intervention from the heated room required. For once.
The young Italian has chosen Senna’s 12, and your correspondent, from a reliable source, namely the television, salutes the gesture. We shall return to this.
Nothing further to report.
It’s true, we checked: Formule1.nl.
