F1 News
WIndsor surprised after crash Antonelli: 'If he's really that good...'
- Cas van de Kleut
Andrea Kimi Antonelli drove his first F1 session on Friday. After ten minutes, the session was already over for the Italian. He crashed at Parabolica in what was a 45G impact, according to Toto Wolff. Peter Windsor shared his take on Antonelli's first session in his analysis on his YouTube channel.
Antonelli immediately apologised after the crash. Toto Wolff then tried to make it clear to him over the team radio that it was no big deal. Even after FP1, Wolff repeated this again. He stated that he is happy that at Mercedes they have to slow Antonelli down rather than make him faster.
Windsor surprised by Antonelli
Windsor noticed something special about the young Italian's crash: "It's extraordinary, I think, that when a young driver comes into Formula 1, with a clean sheet of paper, he has got a great opportunity with a team like Mercedes, but he is not looking at what the Lewis Hamilton's and the Charles Leclerc's and the Max Verstappen's are doing at the Parabolica. He is doing what he wants to be doing going into the Parabolica."
Windsor continued by saying he understood that Antonelli is still only a 'rookie': "But I am surprised that he made that mistake. I'm only saying this in the context of what we are hearing about Kimi and how great he is. He is being called, potentially, the next Jackie Stewart, the next Ayrton Senna, or the next Lewis Hamilton. If he's really that good... those guys didn't do that kind of thing. Neither did Nigel Mansell, even if he had a bad car. So yeah, it will be interesting to see where Kimi goes from that."
This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy
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