Mercedes defend Kimi Antonelli after claims ‘things aren’t working out’

Mercedes team representative Bradley Lord has backed Kimi Antonelli to turn things around despite an incident-filled Dutch Grand Prix.

Antonelli finished outside the points at Zandvoort after picking up 15 seconds' worth of penalties.

The Italian punted Charles Leclerc out of the race, receiving a 10-second penalty for the incident.

He was later hit with a five-second penalty for speeding.

Antonelli has scored points just twice in the last nine races.

His poor form has led to questions about whether Antonelli can handle the pressure of being an F1 driver or whether Mercedes promoted him too early.

Speaking on the Mercedes YouTube channel, Lord said they are fully behind Antonelli.

“I think as people have done their mid-season evaluations, Kimi’s had a little bit of criticism and perhaps some suggestions that things aren’t working out,” Lord said.

“And we’ve been really clear all along that this is a learning year for him. It’s come very early. He’s still very young and very early in his career trajectory as well.

“So we know there will be mistakes, but what we’re looking for are the signs and the indications that he is learning, that he’s building his experience and building his capability as a Formula 1 driver too.”

Mercedes see positives from Zandvoort

While Kimi Antonelli was knocked out in Q2, before his incident with Leclerc, he was on course for a top-six finish.

Antonelli recovered well and got ahead of teammate George Russell, who was nursing damage at the time.

Mercedes are pleased with Antonelli’s improvement, particularly since they’ve reverted to an old suspension part.

“And there were lots of those in Zandvoort. So if you look at his race pace, you look at the improvement and the step he made in qualifying, notwithstanding a pretty troubled practice session. There are lots of really good ingredients there.

“It didn’t all quite come together in Zandvoort, with the penalties obviously for collision and pit lane speeding at the end of the race. And then obviously, some incidents in practice.

“But when we look at the pure underlying performance, we can see good progress, and we can see that he’s got much more confidence in the car now that we’ve reverted on the rear suspension configuration.

“So we’re hopeful of seeing that confidence continue to build and Kimi’s performance continue to do the same over the races ahead.”