Andrea Kimi Antonelli has quizzed a “pretty confusing” strategy by his Mercedes team at the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Italian started fifth, began the race strongly and raced well into the race, but Race Engineer Peter Bonnington placed a three-stop strategy upon him, his third stop coming just five laps after his second for Soft tyres, responding to the deployment of the Safety Car.
Pitting again meant Antonelli, in eighth, lost track position under the Safety Car and was outside of the points for the restart.
At the restart, Antonelli was out of the points, and despite a spirited drive in which he overtook both Williams and Jack Doohan’s Alpine, he finished 11th, out of the points.
Speaking to media, including Motorsport Week after the race, Antonelli showed his disappointment at the strategy and intimated he will be talking to the team about the call, as well as his overall assessment of the race.
“Well, yeah, it was pretty confusing,” he said. “Lap 1 was a bit borderline because I got pushed off in Turn 6, and then obviously I lost three places.
“Then I was fighting back, I was back to P5, and then in the first place I knew I would have got undercut, because obviously I pitted one lap later, but then obviously I was able to progress again, but on the medium I honestly was struggling because I pushed a bit too hard on the outlap and first lap, and then cooked the tyre, and then I found myself a bit struggling, but I still had a decent track position.”
Antonelli cited other examples of drivers who elected not to pit, and intimated the discussions will be in order to ensure a similar mistake is not made at the next round in Saudi Arabia, stating: “we need to review why that, but at the same time I know it’s never easy to make, it’s always easy to talk after, so we need to review that, why it happened, in order to improve it for Jeddah.”
Wolff says Mercedes ‘to look at data’ after Antonelli being on ‘the worst end of everything’
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was questioned after the race as to why Antonelli was given this strategy, and bemoaned the bad luck he endured in his drive.
Moreover, as Antonelli stated, the young Italian was pushing his tyres hard through his opening stints and that presented Mercedes with a choice, a two-stop to end the race on Hards, or three-stops with Softs.
“So, probably Kimi was on the worst end of everything today,” Wolff said.
“The Soft obviously went away after pushing it very hard.
“We put on the Medium, and that pushed very hard, and then we had the choice between a hard or a three-stop soft.
“In my opinion, and we have to look at the data, if we would have given him the hard, and the Safety Car wouldn’t have come out at the opportune time, he would have finished in the top eight, top six.
“And because all of these factors came together, it’s just one of those races that we’re making better over the long term.”
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