Following the large setback Kimi Antonelli confronted through the British Grand Prix that snatched away a possible podium end, leaving him to finish the race in P15, Mercedes group principal Toto Wolff has mentioned that Antonelli’s W17 F1 automobile shall be taken aside to diagnose the problem.
The 19-year-old driver was on his technique to a P2 end, and he might have even challenged Charles Leclerc for a race win if it weren’t for a problem associated to the entrance left wheel that ruined the automobile’s dealing with, main Antonelli to get penalized for a number of monitor limits violations.
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Though he might have boxed his automobile and referred to as it a day, he nonetheless fought for a single level, which is very essential since he’s main the Drivers’ Championship. Wolff has opened up concerning the difficulty on Antonelli’s W17, revealing that the automobile shall be taken again to Mercedes’ manufacturing facility for a radical investigation. Chatting with Planet F1, he mentioned:
“It appears prefer it’s a brake duct with caved in wheel protect. However one thing acquired caught in there, and that is why he wasn’t capable of prove.”
British Grand Prix, Friday, Getty Pictures NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND – JULY 03: Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy driving the (12) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Crew W17 on monitor throughout Dash Qualifying forward of the F1 Grand Prix of Nice Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 03, 2026 in Northampton, England. (Photograph by Colin McMaster/LAT Pictures)
He added:
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“I’ve seen the automobile, but it surely’s not but clear, actually. We’ll take the entire automobile again to the manufacturing facility with a view to take it aside there to actually see the place it occurred, the way it occurred, and why we had so extreme penalties of him not with the ability to drive.”
When Wolff was requested if he was impressed by Antonelli’s dedication to attain a degree, he mentioned:
“Yeah, and if it was me, solely about me, I’d have made the decision 10 laps to the tip due to issues of safety.
“However then suspension appeared okay. That is the largest difficulty.
“He was simply principally surviving from lap to lap and saying that he might try this, and on the finish, if we’re capable of eliminate that penalty, if, these factors may very well be decisive within the championship.”
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Mercedes will not contest Antonelli’s monitor limits violation penalty, regardless that he was going off the monitor limits because of the automobile difficulty. Wolff defined:
“Yeah, I feel for the FIA definitely, it is at all times troublesome to guage is the automobile so broken that it ought to truly are available in, and in that case, I feel the automobile was fantastic.
“It was simply this one function that it was actually troublesome to show. So I hope that they settle for that state of affairs, however I do not know what the result is.”
