Kimi Antonelli has received his first public admonishment from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff after what was labelled an “underwhelming” Italian Grand Prix.
The youngster had headed into his home race at Monza eager to get his season back on track after an incident-filled Dutch GP – which had included an off in first practice and a crash with Charles Leclerc in the race.
But it proved to be a far from error-free weekend in Italy, as he put his car in the gravel in second practice which cost him valuable time to evaluate long runs.
In the race, Antonelli lost ground from P6 at the start after suffering excessive wheelspin off the grid and dropped down to 10th.
As part of a recovery that got him back up to eighth on the road, he was shown the black and white flag for repeated track limits offences.
He then later picked up a five-second penalty for being judged to have forced Alex Albon off track in a fight for position, which meant he was classified ninth in the end as team-mate George Russell came home fifth.
After the race, Wolff’s tone about Antonelli was in contrast to the robust defence that followed the Zandvoort race, as there was the first hint of the team now wanting to see more.
“Underwhelming this weekend. Underwhelming,” said Wolff about Antonelli. “You can’t put the car in the gravel bed and expect to be there.
“All of the race was underwhelming. It doesn't change anything in my support and confidence in his future because I believe he's going to be very, very, very good. But today was… underwhelming.”
Antonelli himself said his race had been ruined by the wheelspin at the start that dropped him back – and then he was also lacking pace because of the missing long run knowledge.
“I didn't do long runs in FP2 because of my mistakes, so I wasn't really prepared for the race,” he said. “That also didn't help.”
Losing the baggage
Wolff still has faith that Antonelli is the right man for Mercedes’ future, but does think that he needs to start avoiding the kind of early weekend errors that have put him out of practice sessions in the Netherlands and Italy.
He also reckoned that Antonelli’s timidness in attacking Pierre Gasly as he recovered his dropped positions at Monza was a legacy of him having crashed into Charles Leclerc at Zandvoort after an aggressive move.
Asked what he felt Antonelli needed, Wolff said: “I think a clean weekend means almost not to carry too much trauma of previous mistakes into the next session or into the next weekend, because that is baggage.
“You're not going to attack the corner hard if you've been off there before and it finished your session.
“Or maybe you're not attacking a driver that should not be in your way like Gasly because he had this situation with Leclerc. Kimi shouldn't lose even a second on Gasly.”
Wolff reckoned that simply “talking” with Antonelli to help reinforce things would allow him to get into the headspace he needs.
He added: “It’s just freeing him up. Freeing him up.
“He's a great driver. He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He's a racer. It’s all there. But we need to get rid of the ballast.”
