Toto Wolff hailed the “maturity” Andrea Kimi Antonelli showed in securing a sixth-place finish in the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix with a damaged Mercedes W16.
Antonelli lined up eighth on the grid at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday and crossed the line in the same position, 42 seconds behind team-mate George Russell, who finished third.
Despite post-race disqualifications for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, promoting him to sixth, Antonelli’s Sunday wasn’t headline-grabbing, but he was hampered by an issue unbeknownst to him from within the Mercedes W16 cockpit.
“I felt something was weird. Apparently, the team told me I had floor damage from Lap 1,” Antonelli said post-race.
“Now thinking back, I know where I could have got the damage.
“When Leclerc lost the [front] wing [end plate], I hit it with the floor.
“I remember going over it, but I didn’t really think at the time that there was some damage. But obviously, I struggled.
“I was really struggling in traction. Combined traction was a real struggle.
“I couldn’t really go on power. I really needed to wait until a certain moment, because the car otherwise was snapping. But it could explain the damage.”
Leclerc tagged team-mate Hamilton at lights out, losing his front wing endplate, and Wolff noted that Antonelli suffered “extensive floor damage,” adding “We don’t actually know why, whether he ran over Charles’ end-plate, but he had massive holes in the floor and titanium streaks that were gone.”
The Austrian added to Sky Deutschland that the damage represented a loss of 0.5s per lap.
No wonder Wolff was impressed by Antonelli’s performance.
“So considering that he had a car that was severely impaired, finishing eighth, holding onto it, and not complaining, just getting on with the job shows the potential and the maturity the young man has,” Wolff said.
Antonelli seeks improvements
Despite driving with damage, Antonelli believes his performance in China warranted improvement.
“I want to see some data where I could have done better,” he said.
“To be honest, the pace of the car is there, and I need to improve and try to put things together in order to achieve a better result.
“I think without the damage, it could have been a different race.
“I know the pace is there because obviously George did a great job. He was up there, so now it’s time to analyse and come back stronger to Japan.”
The 18-year-old is happy with the performances he’s put in across two GP weekends and highlighted areas where he can push on next time out at Suzuka.
“I think every weekend is a massive learning,” he said.
“Of course, next weekend in Japan is going to be another new challenge, because a new track for me.
“But overall, I’m happy with the progress. I know the pace is there.
“It’s just a matter of putting all together, especially in qualifying.
“Learning how to put the tyres in the right window for the start of the lap in order to have a clean lap and being able to put it all together.
“Because, if I do so, then I can start in a further forward position and then the race can be a different story.”
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