Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff described the performance of Kimi Antonelli in the Italian Grand Prix as “Underwhelming” and believes that his driver must free himself from earlier mistakes.
Antonelli turned in the gravel during the second practice session on Friday in Monza and lost long -term data at an important point of the weekend. While he just qualified behind teammate George Russell, Antonelli then grabbed a penalty for forcing Alex Albon from the circuit and was warned about violations of the track limits because he was classified in ninth place for more than 20 seconds behind Russell.
“This weekend underwhelming, underwhelming,” said Wolff. “You can’t put the car in the gravel bed and expect to be there. The entire race was overwhelming.
“It doesn’t change in terms of my support and trust in his future because I believe he will be very, very, very good. [Monza] Was … underwhelming. “
Wolff believes that Antonelli is being stopped by some of the other mistakes he made in his Rookie season, and points out that it takes him six laps to pass Pierre Gasly after his pit stop perhaps a hangover of his collision with Charles Leclerc in Zandvoort a week earlier.
“I think a clean weekend hardly means not too much trauma of earlier errors in the next session or in the following weekend, because that is luggage,” Wolff said. ‘You’re not going to attack the corner hard if you’ve been gone earlier [in a previous] Session, or maybe you don’t get a driver who should not stand in the way of Gasly because we had this situation with Leclerc. He should not even lose a second on Gasly. “
With Antonelli who is still struggling for consistency, despite the fact that Mercedes is making progress with his rear -wheel suspension – an area that turned out to be difficult for the drivers – Wolff believes that the Italian Rookie needs more confidence to perform at a higher level.
‘Just free him [is key]”Wolff said.” He is a great driver, has this incredible capacity and natural talent. He is a racing driver – it’s all there. But we have to get rid of the ballast. ‘
#Wolff #Underwhelming #Antonelli #shake #mistakes #faster #Racer