Mercedes Formula 1 team principal Toto Wolff says Kimi Antonelli will never make the same mistakes again, which lost him a better shot at Austrian Grand Prix victory.
The Italian saw his world championship lead trimmed to 40 points following George Russell’s win at the Red Bull Ring, as he controlled proceedings from pole position, holding off a late attack from Max Verstappen as Antonelli closed on them both in third.
But Antonelli missed his chance to take pole position when he bailed out of his final qualifying lap, mistaking a double-waved yellow flag when it was a just a single-waved yellow flag for Verstappen’s crash, which Russell interpreted correctly to secure pole with his final lap.
With Antonelli starting fourth behind Russell and both Ferrari drivers, the 19-year-old was overly aggressive in the opening laps trying to get by Charles Leclerc, which cost him a position to Verstappen as he dropped to fifth.
“The first few corners, this is where the race got lost,” Wolff summarised. “Full attack mode, missing braking in Turn 1, missing braking in Turn 3, missing braking in Turn 4.
“But, as I said, this is exactly what I expect from him. Like yesterday [in qualifying], the yellow, that’s never going to happen to him in his life again. To not see whether it’s a double yellow or a single yellow.
“In the same way today [in the race], he just wanted to be right there on George. He wanted to be right behind him and that cost him a position or two.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images
Antonelli held his hands up for the errors immediately after the race, accepting his aggressive driving cost him a better result.
“I was a bit too excited in the first few laps and definitely didn’t drive well,” Antonelli said. “I did too many mistakes. And even in the first stint on the medium [tyres], I lost three, four seconds with mistakes.
“I was struggling with the brakes, but then I think after I changed tyre, I reset, and the pace was again very strong. And it was a shame that I joined the party a bit too late.”
Antonelli put the errors down to relaxing too much as a result of topping both Friday practice sessions at the Red Bull Ring and then being too tense in qualifying.
“It was a weekend where I started very strong, and I think because of that I kind of lowered the intensity a bit too much,” he explained. “And coming to qualifying, I just felt a bit tense, driving-wise. We were still up there, but I felt like I wasn’t driving that well and not as free.
“Of course, the last lap, it went like that, but I was a tenth behind George, so it probably would have been P2, very close, but P2.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, George Russell, Mercedes, Toto Wolff, Mercedes
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“Starting from P4, the first lap was really bad for me. And then I really struggled with brakes, and I just lost a lot of time because I started to do mistakes. But then second stint was a bit better, and then third stint was really, really strong. The pace was just there but of course fell a bit short.”
He later added: “The mistakes were made and definitely without them, probably could have had the chance to fight for P2 or even P1. But of course, easy to say now, and need to make sure they don’t happen again.”
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