Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin is confident that rookie charger Kimi Antonelli will recover quickly from his costly first-lap error at the Austrian Grand Prix, urging the young Italian to focus on the task ahead as he prepares for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
Antonelli faces a three-place grid penalty at Silverstone as a result of his crash at Turn 3 last weekend in Spielberg, where he locked up and collided with Max Verstappen, with the incident ending both driver’s race on the spot.
Despite the high-profile error and subsequent criticism, Shovlin downplayed the long-term impact of the mistake on Antonelli’s development, describing the Italian’s response as mature and accountable.
“Kimi will be fine,” Shovlin said in Mercedes’ traditional post-race debrief on YouTube. “He was very disappointed after the race and embarrassed to have made a mistake that ultimately took Max out as well.
“Now he’ll get a penalty for that. He held his hand up. He wasn’t pretending it was anyone else’s fault.”
Shovlin stressed the importance of mindset ahead of the British Grand Prix, noting that Antonelli must not dwell on the penalty and instead focus on maximizing performance during the weekend.
“He’s got that grid penalty in Silverstone, but he’s going to have to put that to the back of his mind and just focus on qualifying as far up the grid as possible, getting the car set up for qualifying, getting it set up for the race.”
Antonelli’s debut season in Formula 1 has shown considerable promise, with standout performances including a sprint pole position in Miami and a podium finish in Canada.
With 63 points from the opening 11 rounds, the teenager has proven without any doubt he belongs among the elite. Shovlin believes that Antonelli’s resilience and work ethic will ensure a strong comeback in front of the British crowd.
“But he’ll be over that by now,” he added. “He’s fully focused on the next event.
“He’ll be in [the simulator] with Bono [race engineer Pete Bonnington] and the engineering team working on the setup in preparation. And I’m sure that he’ll bounce back strong.”
All eyes will now be on Silverstone to see if the Mercedes prospect can turn the page and deliver another standout performance under pressure.
In Mercedes’ British Grand Prix preview, team boss Toto Wolff revealed that the Brackley squad had “experimented” in Austria with the setup of its W16 silver arrow, although the trial did not prove beneficial overall.
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“After a tough Grand Prix in Austria, it is good to get back racing straight away,” Wolff said.
“We deliberately experimented on set-up in Spielberg; it was a useful test and there are positive learnings we can apply this weekend, but it ultimately didn't help our performance.”
“Whilst it will be an exciting weekend off track with several activations, our full focus remains of course on the track. We will look to bounce back from last weekend and put on a performance more befitting of Mercedes' storied history.”
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