F1 News
Antonelli's stellar drive doesn't shock Wolff: 'Always knew the potential'
While there were some doubts regarding Mercedes' choice to put Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the car for the 2025 season, the young Italian driver has confirmed Mercedes' expectations with a cintillating debut at the Australian Grand Prix.
Antonelli's scintillating debut, not unexpected by Wolff
"We always knew the potential [Antonelli has]," says Mercedes CEO and Team Principal, Toto Wolff to media, including GPblog, following the Australian Grand Prix. "You see we followed him since he was a kid and [he] performs under pressure," added the Austrian team principal.
Antonelli's Saturday qualifying session was compromised after he took damage to the W16's underfloor on the exit of Turn 6. "Yesterday in qualifying that wasn't his doing. He just hit the bump at the wrong place and, (without that incident, ed.) he would have qualified much further ahead, and today you saw that."
Having started P16, Antonelli picked off rival after rival, and more importantly, unlike other rookies such as Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson, Jack Doohan and Gabriel Bortoleto, he kept his nose out of trouble and cemented a strong start to his F1 tenure at Mercedes. "He was able to just properly reel everybody in slowly but surely without making any mistakes. He had a little spin but otherwise, P5 which was P4, is the result that he merits."
Antonelli's penalty overturned
Although Antonelli was given a five second penalty which demoted him from P4 to P5 behind Williams driver Alex Albon, the Stewards, having reviewd new evidence provided by Mercedes, decided to overturn the penalty handed to the Italian driver, effectively reinstating his P4 achieved at the flag.
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