Yesterday at 12:00
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has claimed
that if Kimi Antonelli had qualified better at the Hungarian Grand
Prix, a "very, very strong result" could have been on the cards.
The 18-year-old scored the first point in Europe of his F1 career
at the Hungaroring, finishing tenth, but was limited in what he was
able to achieve by starting a lowly P15. Team-mate George Russell
returned to the podium for the first time since their 1-3 finish in
Montreal, capping off a return to form for Mercedes after a torrid
run. The catalyst for those difficulties was an ill-fated rear
suspension upgrade at Imola, which cost the W16 stability in
high-speed corners. Whilst Russell was broadly able to drive around
the problem, albeit with an impact on his results, Antonelli lost
significant confidence. The Brackley-based squad returned to its
previous configuration for the round on the outskirts of Budapest,
and it immediately paid dividends. "It was certainly a stronger
weekend from a performance point of view," said Shovlin. "So it was
good that we seemed to have got to the bottom of some of the issues
that have affected us at the recent races. "It was much easier to
work with the car as well. So the changes we were making, the car
was responding well to it. "And the drivers had a lot more
confidence to attack the corners. So that was good." The
51-year-old moved to take some of the share of responsibility for
Antonelli's Q2 knock-out, stating "we", as in Mercedes, could have
achieved more on the young Italian's side of the garage. "Great to
see George on the podium, as you say," he added. "We could have
done a bit more with Kimi, though." The eight-time constructors'
champions utilised the offset one-stop strategy to good effect on
Antonelli's car. Having started on the medium compound, he was able
to quickly dispatch of some slower cars ahead - and Lewis Hamilton
on hard tyres - to get himself in position to aim for points. He
held on during his second and final stint to shake his pointless
streak before F1's summer shutdown. "If we could have qualified a
bit better, the race pace that he had on Sunday could have seen him
with a very, very strong result," Shovlin explained. "So as I said,
the learning and the understanding is one of the things we're most
pleased with."
