Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes a mixture of stress and expectation may clarify why Andrea Kimi Antonelli crashed out simply 5 laps into his Method 1 debut on the Italian Grand Prix.
Antonelli was operating instead of George Russell in FP1 at Monza to achieve his first expertise behind the wheel in an F1 weekend, having initially set the quickest time of the session, he spun off on the closing nook and hit the wall with solely 10 minutes on the clock.
With the extremely rated 18-year-old anticipated as Lewis Hamilton’s substitute at Mercedes subsequent season, it was not the debut the Italian would have needed, having minimal operating earlier than his shunt introduced out the pink flag in entrance of his dwelling followers.
After swearing and apologising over the workforce radio, Wolff consoled Antonelli, replying: “Kimi all good, all good Kimi.”
Wolff later defined why the circumstances may have labored towards Antonelli, who walked away from the 45g crash and underwent assessments on the medical centre.
“It’s the workforce that takes the choice whether or not to rent a driver or not and who to place in FP1 or not and we’re operating totally aware into this driver choice, totally aware of what can occur, what to anticipate and managing the expectations,” stated Wolff.
“Clearly right here, with all the pieces piling up on him in Monza, that could be very troublesome to deal with. Is that the rationale why he put it within the wall? Perhaps.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes-AMG F1 Workforce, walks away from his broken automobile after a crash in FP1
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photographs
“I believe the circumstances are responsible…you might be beneath the magnifying glass as a result of all of it occurs in Monza, it has been some time since an Italian driver was in a high workforce, this could be a lot for an 18-year-old.
“For him, it feels definitely horrible, however it’s a part of the event curve. What we see is there’s efficiency, and we’ve even seen that within the few laps we’ve seen however what he did, the automobile couldn’t take.”
Wolff has backed Antonelli to bounce again after crashing simply 10 minutes into the session and revealed the plan is to have him behind the wheel for FP1 in Mexico.
“I believe a powerful driver must recuperate from this stuff, deal with the stress however clearly this weekend wasn’t straightforward for him; you continue to must compete in F2, you might have all these shenanigans round you in Monza, an Italian child that’s being hyped, first time in a Mercedes automobile.
“That have to be a heavy burden but when he desires to be a champion in the future he wants to deal with that and I’ve little question that he can and he’ll.”
One factor that’s clear is that Antonelli, even with such restricted operating, managed to point out Wolff simply what he may deliver to the workforce.
“It’s unlucky, having an hour to run we might have seen some good performances however that’s what we’ve at all times stated, he’s a rookie, he’s very younger, and we’re ready to put money into his future.
“These moments will occur; they may proceed to occur subsequent 12 months however there can even be lots of highlights. We fairly have an issue in slowing him down fairly than making him sooner, what we’ve seen in a single and a half laps is simply astonishing.
“Most significantly he’s OK as a result of the crash was 45g so that’s necessary. The second precedence is to get the automobile prepared for George so the programme doesn’t endure an excessive amount of, it might run a little bit bit late.
“He apologised, initially, and that’s what it’s essential do if you deliver a automobile again that may be a little bit like a Lego field falling on the ground, however he stated he felt a lot confidence within the automobile.
“I suppose he was simply bitten, everybody suffered from the temperature, particularly rear temperatures round Ascari at these sorts of speeds – that’s the reason the rear stepped out.”
