Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been promoted again to fourth on his System 1 debut within the Australian Grand Prix after Mercedes efficiently appealed a five-second penalty for an unsafe launch.
Antonelli had initially been relegated to fifth because of the penalty, however upon a evaluation and examination of the roll-hoop digital camera footage, the Italian was discovered to not have impeded Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber.
It ensured Antonelli’s weekend ended on a excessive after he had blundered in qualifying at Albert Park and spun within the opening stint of the race. However the positives far outweighed any negatives throughout a race weekend the place even a double world champion smote the obstacles.
“Some excellent drivers spun or hit the wall, it was simpler to not end than end,” Mercedes crew boss Toto Wolff informed Sky Sports activities F1. “He saved his cool and it was very spectacular to see. It exhibits he has a very good future as long as the trajectory carries on as it’s.”
Antonelli’s error in qualifying, which left him sixteenth on the grid, is a query of diploma: he wasn’t as far over the Flip 6 kerb as many different drivers, however the mixture of strike angle and the presence of gravel deposited by different automobiles taking greater liberties broken his W16’s flooring. Beginning to date again would have been a considerable problem even when the climate had been beneficial on Sunday.
Because it was, Antonelli was going through solely his second expertise of driving an F1 automobile within the moist, the primary having been a quick tour within the 2021 Mercedes on the Crimson Bull Ring final April, the place snow introduced the day to an early conclusion. So this was his first time in a ground-effect F1 automobile and on current-generation intermediate tyres.
The training curve was made all of the steeper by the early deployment of the protection automobile after Jack Doohan’s spin: the slower tempo meant tyre temperatures plummeted.
“It was tremendous troublesome at the beginning,” mentioned Antonelli. “And behind the protection automobile the tyres had been cooling down massively. The grip was nowhere.
“And likewise with all these white strains, it’s tremendous, tremendous difficult as a result of, as quickly as you go over them, even in high-speed corners, you lose the grip swiftly.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photos
Having handed Hulkenberg for twelfth on lap 15, Antonelli then spun and needed to do all of it once more.
“I used to be fortunate to spin in a spot the place it was protected,” he mentioned.
“After I had the error, it form of damage my confidence slightly bit. The crew did nice to calm me down and get me again into the rhythm, and made all the correct calls.”
Antonelli then regularly made progress up the order as others crashed out or made incorrect technique calls amid the ever-changing situations, earlier than the rookie then nailed Alex Albon for fourth in the course of the last six-lap dash to the flag after the final safety-car interval.
With the chequered flag nearly nearby, although, the crew was notified that Antonelli can be given a five-second time penalty for being launched into the trail of Hulkenberg within the pitlane. It didn’t cross on this message to its driver, however as an alternative informed him to maintain on pushing to construct a niche.
“You’ll be able to solely shake your head,” mentioned Wolff. “It got here up [on the screen] as an incident, no one noticed it – it wasn’t performed [on the TV feed] – after which 90 seconds later there was a penalty.”
When the five-second penalty was utilized it dropped Antonelli from fourth to fifth, behind Albon once more, however the crew swiftly filed a petition for a ‘proper of evaluation’ with the stewards.
The essential bar that have to be met in these circumstances is the presence of “important and related” new proof “which was unavailable to the social gathering in search of the evaluation on the time of the choice involved”.
Along with the roll hoop footage, the stewards additionally examined helicopter footage and concluded that Antonelli didn’t cross into the ‘quick lane’ instantly, and checked in his mirror earlier than doing so. The in-car footage confirmed there was no danger to mechanics standing additional down the pitlane. Primarily based on these new parts, the stewards reversed their resolution, restoring Antonelli to fourth place.
“I discovered so many issues,” concluded Antonelli. “Clearly it was disappointing yesterday, and possibly may have been a special race, however you by no means know.
“It was good to expertise what occurs on the again, however clearly we don’t wish to begin that far [back] anymore. It was difficult, and particularly on the slick tyre it was fairly scary, however I’m actually proud of the way it went.”
Photographs from Australian GP – Race
On this article
Stuart Codling
System 1
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes
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