16/04/2025 18:10
Toto Wolff maintains the Bahrain Grand Prix was an "important
milestone" in Kimi Antonelli's young F1 career, despite an
ultimately fruitless weekend. The 18-year-old started fifth on the
grid in Sakhir, but an unfortunate confluence of events saw him
reach the chequered flag in P11, the first scoreless weekend of his
debut season. After being shuffled out whilst fighting Pierre Gasly
through the opening corners of the race, Antonelli pulled off a
number of impressive overtaking moves as he worked his way back up
to where he started, including an audacious lunge on Carlos Sainz
into Turn 1. However, that cooked his tyres, an issue he suffered
with throughout on the abrasive Bahrain International Circuit
surface, which - having not been changed since it was first laid in
2004 - is older than him. This forced Mercedes into an alternate
strategy for the Italian, landing on an aggressive three-stop
approach. However, the inopportune timing of the Sainz and Yuki
Tsunoda-induced safety car ruined any chance of a recovery. A
post-interruption tussle with the ailing Williams did not help his
progress. Wolff was quick to highlight that much of the
disappointing result was the consequence of bad luck surrounding
the safety car intervention. Instead, he focused on the pace
Antonelli showed and the lessons to be learned. "For Kimi, Bahrain
was an important part of the learning curve," the 53-year-old
reflected. "He showed through the weekend that he had the pace to
challenge for the top-five. "He found himself out of position on
the opening lap though and, as he fought back in the opening two
stints, his tyres suffered. "Switching to a different strategy, he
was then unfortunate with the timing of the safety car and our
choices didn't give him the chance to fight back to the points."
The Austrian underlined how strong Antonelli's performances have
been so far this campaign, suggesting the weekend in Sakhir could
be a seminal moment for the driver. "It has been easy to forget
that Kimi is in the very earliest stages of his F1 career given his
performances so far," he added. "Bahrain will prove an important
milestone in his continued development."
