Mercedes has admitted that Kimi Antonelli was “on the edge of retirement” in the final laps of the Mexico City GP where he won his maiden Formula 1 title.
Kimi Antonelli secured his first world championship title in Mexico City last weekend, finishing third to Lewis Hamilton and race winner Max Verstappen. However, the young Italian struggled with an engine issue at the end of the race that could have seen him retire from his championship winning grand prix.
Luckily for Antonelli, a DNF would not have postponed his WDC celebration any longer as neither Lewis Hamilton nor George Russell won the race, meaning Antonelli did not actually need to score any points in Mexico to win the title.
Speaking in an interview with the High Performance Racing podcast, Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord revealed that Antonelli’s car had an oil leak.
“We got the car back after the race, took the floor off the bottom, covered in oil. Sump cracked and Kimi said he thinks about four laps from the end he could start to feel the engine just starting to struggle.
“So right on the edge of retirement of that race and yet it held together.”
Kimi Antonelli: ‘I lost probably two seconds because I was already crying’
Despite the engine problem, Antonelli described the last laps of the Mexico City GP as “very special”.
“I knew I was very close [to the title],” Antonelli said. “However, I still needed to get the job done, and, of course, you still want to do a good race. You want to do a good performance, so that was the goal.
“But, of course, it hasn’t been the easiest weekend either. Physically, I haven’t been in the best shape, but also yesterday we had a bad qualifying execution, and, you know, emotions were a bit high overall. But I’m really happy that today we did a strong race and really happy that we managed to finish the job. And then now we’ve got a few races to go, and we’re just going to enjoy all the way and try to finish on a high.”
“On the last lap I just backed off because I just couldn’t see the track. I was getting emotional, and I said, “I’m just going to back off because otherwise I crash here.” So it was just good to bring it home.
“Already the lap before, I think I lost probably two seconds because I was already crying, basically. I couldn’t see clearly ahead. You know, I could see two Ferraris somehow with the tears. So, it was very special.
“A lot of memories went through my mind in that moment, all the memories since karting all the way to here. It was a very special final lap, and definitely, you know, then when I crossed the line, I let it all out because it was just achieving one of my biggest dreams. It was very special.”
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