Kimi Antonelli labelled his Mercedes mechanics as “heroes” for fixing his car in time to make qualifying for Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix after his hefty FP3 shunt threatened to derail his weekend.
The Italian had taken too much kerb at Turn 2 during the final stages of FP3 while attempting to start his qualifying simulation run, and careened into the outside wall as a result. His car came to rest next to the inside wall, with debris littering the circuit.
Mercedes had about two hours to repair Antonelli’s car, turning his side of the garage into a hive of activity. It was still on the stands when qualifying started, surrounded by boxes of spare parts – but the team remained hopeful of getting Antonelli into qualifying.
Max Verstappen‘s Q1 shunt helped Mercedes out as the clock was stopped, ensuring that Antonelli was able to take to the pitlane once the session restarted. Contending with the knock-on effects of the shunt, Antonelli nonetheless scythed his way into Q3 and plonked his car on the front row alongside team-mate and polesitter George Russell.
Antonelli thanked his mechanics for getting his car back into working order for qualifying, where he was just 0.293s shy of Russell.
“Yeah, it’s been a very, very stressful day,” Antonelli explained after qualifying. “Unfortunately, in FP3, I went into the wall but the guys, the mechanics today were the heroes to put the car back on track.
“And we couldn’t even set up the car, we just went out and just managed to put it on the front row. So I’m really happy with that.
“It was not easy. I had to dig deep. But yeah, I need to have a clean weekend next time because I definitely compromised a little bit qualifying. But we have a race tomorrow to look ahead and a good result is possible.”
Antonelli will be subject to stewards’ enquiry for an unsafe release, where a cooling blower was left in his sidepod as he left the pits in Q3.
George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
The blower fell out of the sidepod into Turn 1 and split in two, one of the parts making a break for the circuit. Lando Norris ended up running over that part, putting more debris onto the circuit.
Team principal Toto Wolff hoped that Antonelli would not bear the brunt of any penalties, stating that it was a team error – but was keen to praise his outfit for its swift recovery.
“I’m feeling relieved, for the hard work that was put in from everyone in the UK, and then the mechanics today did an awesome job,” Wolff told Sky.
“That car looked like a Lego Formula 1 car that was thrown on the floor like literally two hours before and I said to them that five minutes before the start of the session we wouldn’t make it.
“Then, obviously Max went off and that gained us the minutes to put the car out. I said it last year, it’s easier to slow someone down than trying to make a donkey fast.
“Dampening somebody’s energy in the car is something that is also a matter of time and risk-reward ratio, he never feels that he’s taking too much risks.
“But then he’s putting it so much on the edge and that’s something he’s going to learn, we had a few of these now but they’re part of him growing.”
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