The director of the Mercedes team, Toto Wolff, has expressed his confidence that Kimi Antonelli will not repeat the mistakes made during the Austrian Grand Prix, which cost him a better chance of victory. The Italian saw his advantage in the world championship reduced to 40 points after George Russell‘s victory at the Red Bull Ring, where the British driver dominated, defending against strong pressure from Max Verstappen, while Antonelli was in third position.
The young driver lost the chance to start from the front row after confusing a double yellow flag with a single one during his fast lap in qualifying. This allowed Russell to secure pole position with his last attempt.
With Antonelli starting from fourth place behind Russell and the two Ferrari drivers, the Italian showed an excessively aggressive driving style in the early laps, losing a position to Verstappen and dropping to fifth place. Wolff commented: “The early laps were where he lost the race. He tried to push too hard, failing at the braking points of corners 1, 3, and 4.”
Despite the setbacks, Wolff believes that Antonelli must learn from his experiences. “He will never again not distinguish between a double yellow flag and a single one. It’s about learning from these situations,” he added.
After the race, Antonelli admitted his mistakes, acknowledging that his aggression cost him a better result. “I made too many mistakes and lost valuable time at the start. After the tire change, my pace was strong, but too late to achieve a good position,” he said.
Antonelli attributed his difficulties to having relaxed his intensity after a good start to the weekend: “I lowered the tension a bit too much, and that affected me in qualifying.” Despite being able to set a good pace later in the race, he acknowledges that he must ensure that these mistakes do not happen again in the future.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
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