Mercedes gave Antonelli an ‘undriveable’ F1 car, he used it to prove he’s a champion

At just 19 years of age, Kimi Antonelli has managed to cling onto the F1 drivers' championship lead even after a disastrous end to the British Grand Prix.

At the ninth round of the championship, the Italian teenager experienced podium glory at the iconic Silverstone circuit for the first time in his F1 career, winning Saturday's sprint.

He then went on to position himself in the best possible spot on the grid ahead of Sunday's race, setting the fastest time in qualifying ahead of both Ferraris and team-mate George Russell.

But it was what happened in the dying stages of the 52-lap event that have helped the young racer show his team what he's capable of.

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Antonelli's Silverstone struggle proved he's got a champion's mindset

On lap 41 of Sunday's British GP, Antonelli could be heard relaying a distressed message over team radio, confirming that something had broken on his car.

That distress was an appropriate reaction given the Italian had been running in P2 and was set to pick up his second podium of the weekend before encountering an issue on his W17.

After two separate trips into the pits to try and fix the issue, Antonelli dropped way back in the pack down to 10th place, grappling with his machinery and landing himself with a controversial five-second penalty for track limits violations as a result.

All this bad luck meant Antonelli finished the race down in P16 (he was promoted to P15 in the FIA's final classification thanks to a post-race penalty for Carlos Sainz).

But Russell finished P2 in the British GP and even with a sprint win under his belt, Antonelli's lead has now been cut to just 25 points.

However, this doesn't appear to concern Mercedes, who instead have taken away some major positives from the way Antonelli handled his machinery which the team have now admitted was practically 'undriveable' at Silverstone.

In a video posted to the Mercedes F1 Instagram, the team's Deputy Technical Director Simone Resta explained what went wrong on Antonelli's car, praising his response.

"It was simply a front brake duct failure of a part of the brake duct that is called the wheel shield," Resta began.

"Essentially, 10 laps to the end, we had a failure, and the component got loose and started to interact quite a lot with the suspension behaviour and the steering of the car.

"The car became very, very lazy and almost undriveable."

Resta, who previously worked for Haas and Ferrari, then highlighted just how well the young championship leader had done attempting to handle the car under such conditions, pointing to what sets him apart from team-mate Russell.

"Kimi was really, really resilient. He wanted to keep the car on track and give himself the best chance to score points. Now, the car, as I said, was very undriveable, and that’s why Kimi went off track a few times.

"Unfortunately, that cost him a five-second penalty at the end of the race. Very unfortunate on that component, but another strong sign of performance and resilience from our young driver."

Russell has a history of complaining about the handling of the Mercedes F1 machinery, and given both drivers could find themselves fighting to keep their seat with Toto Wolff's squad in the years to come, Antonelli's approach on Sunday proved not just why he deserves to stay, but also why he is likely to lift the championship trophy before Russell.

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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