Yesterday at 10:10
Mercedes remain committed to Kimi Antonelli despite another
challenging weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix, where the
19-year-old's strong race pace was overshadowed by costly errors.
The Italian's weekend in Zandvoort highlighted both his potential
and ongoing struggles, but the Brackley squad's chief
communications officer, Bradley Lord, has defended a messy event
for the young driver. After crashing in Friday practice and
qualifying P11, Antonelli collided with Charles Leclerc while
fighting for fifth position on lap 53. The incident, caused by
understeer at Turn 3, sent Leclerc spinning into the barriers and
earned Antonelli a 10-second penalty. He also received an
additional five seconds' worth of punishment for pit lane speeding,
dropping him to P16 at the chequered flag. "I think as people have
done their mid-season evaluations, Kimi's had a little bit of
criticism and perhaps some suggestions that things aren't working
out," said Lord in the eight-time constructors' champion's
post-round debrief. "And we've been really clear all along that
this is a learning year for him. It's come very early. He's still
very young and very early in his career trajectory as well. "So we
know there will be mistakes, but what we're looking for are the
signs and the indications that he is learning, that he's building
his experience and building his capability as a Formula 1 driver
too. "And there were lots of those in Zandvoort. So if you look at
his race pace, you look at the improvement and the step he made in
qualifying, notwithstanding a pretty troubled practice session.
There are lots of really good ingredients there. "It didn't all
quite come together in Zandvoort, with the penalties obviously for
collision and pit lane speeding at the end of the race. And then
obviously, some incidents in practice." A silver lining However,
the mistakes in Zandvoort are just the latest in a string of
setbacks for Antonelli, which contrast sharply with his explosive
start to his debut season. Following a debut fourth-place finish in
Australia, he delivered consistent points finishes and became the
youngest driver to lead a race before claiming his maiden podium at
the Canadian Grand Prix. But, aside from that performance in
Montreal, Antonelli has scored points in just one other race over
the past nine rounds. It is a run that has included two race-ending
crashes, taking out Max Verstappen and Leclerc, respectively, and
raising questions about his development. His problems over the
period were caused and compounded by the since-discarded rear
suspension upgrade Mercedes introduced at Imola. Nonetheless, a
contract extension is imminent, and the team continues to
wholeheartedly support him. That update made the W16 less stable,
especially through longer corners, something that sapped
Antonelli's confidence and instigated his loss of form. "But when
we look at the pure underlying performance, we can see good
progress, and we can see that he's got much more confidence in the
car now that we've reverted on the rear suspension configuration,"
Lord explained, highlighting a silver lining to a difficult weekend
for the rookie. "So we're hopeful of seeing that confidence
continue to build and Kimi's performance continue to do the same
over the races ahead."
