“A bump in the road" - Kimi Antonelli urges Mercedes to find F1 reliability fix'

Kimi Antonelli has dismissed his Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix retirement as merely a “bump in the road”, but has pressed Mercedes to get on top of its continuing reliability problems.

Antonelli arrived in Spain on the back of a five-race winning streak, a run that equalled Lewis Hamilton’s career-best spell, with the Italian only in his second season of F1 action.

But his championship lead was slashed to 41 points after he retired in the closing stages with a battery problem.

This instance comes after team-mate George Russell and customer team McLaren have suffered similar problems in the opening stages of the campaign.

“Of course, it's very disappointing, but these things happen,” Antonelli told media, including Crash.net.

“It happened to George in Canada; it happened to me this time.

“It's definitely something we need to work on as a team, because it's important points that we lost.”

Despite the disappointment, Antonelli remained philosophical about the situation.

He added: “But these things can happen, especially in the first year of regulation. It's not always easy to find the perfect reliability.

“I think our PU is incredibly strong, but for sure, reliability is not the best bit. But as I said, these things can happen; it's no one's fault. Now, a week of rest and then we're back in Austria.”

With Mercedes having been granted an ADUO token to upgrade its power unit after it was deemed that Red Bull had the best ICE [internal combustion engine], the championship-leading manufacturer can bring limited upgrades.

Asked if something new would be brought to Austria next weekend, Antonelli said: “I think we're bringing new bits every race. I feel like the team is doing an incredible job, the car is incredibly strong.

“I feel like we're on an incredible run. Of course, today feels like a little bit of a bump on the road. But the important thing is that we get back up and we come back stronger.”

Highlighting the need for improved reliability is the threat now posed in the title race by Lewis Hamilton, who has finished in the points at every race so far this year.

Commenting on whether he views Hamilton as a serious threat, Antonelli said: “For sure, they're in incredible form. Ferrari is very reliable. But they're quick as well.

“So we just need to maximise every opportunity that we have. And then try to do our best. It's not going to be straightforward, but I'm already looking forward to the next one because I really want to go back to where we left or from where we were finishing before.”