Sky Sports Formula 1 pundit and former W Series driver Naomi Schiff has warned that ongoing power unit issues at Mercedes could cost Kimi Antonelli race wins and threaten his championship campaign.
The Italian driver currently leads the drivers’ standings on 320 points, with his Mercedes team-mate George Russell sitting second on 236 points.
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Show following the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Schiff discussed Russell’s heartbreaking end to the race at the Sepang International Circuit. The Briton was in contention for a podium finish when he suffered a power unit failure in the closing laps of the race, extending his team-mate’s lead in the standings to 84 points.
“It’s not great that they’re happening. It’s happened multiple times, not just with George’s car. Kimi’s also had some issues,” Schiff explained.
“Other Mercedes power unit cars have had issues. So, there is a wider issue that I think Toto [Wolff] is probably concerned about. We noticed his frustration, and we can understand why he’s as frustrated as that.”
Schiff argued that the power unit issues could cost Antonelli some victories as he fights for his maiden championship.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Liam Fabre
“But you’ve got to scratch your head and wonder why they’re having so many reliability issues across the board,” she continued.
“That could cost Kimi some more victories. It could just cost the team a lot of constructors’ points where… You think about Red Bull this weekend, Isack Hadjar was very, very close to Max Verstappen until the race came, but the other teams and drivers are going to take away points from Mercedes.
“So, you can understand why there’s frustration across the board. But poor George. I feel for him. I don’t want to give him a pass because his job is to be quicker than his team-mate. But in this year where it was meant to be his year, where Mercedes finally have a competitive car for him. I guess he dropped the ball somewhat.”
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