Kimi Antonelli was forced to retire from the race in Barcelona just a few laps before the finish due to a technical issue
With just a few laps remaining, Kimi Antonelli was forced to retire from the Barcelona-Catalonia Grand Prix due to technical issues. Shortly before that, the World Championship leader had overtaken his teammate George Russell in a head-to-head battle on the track.
“The car just let me down,” said the 19-year-old into the Sky Deutschland microphone. “It gave up, but that’s racing. It happens, [but] it’s obviously frustrating.”
Nevertheless, Antonelli emphasized: “The race was very strong today. The pace was good, especially on the hard tires—that’s a positive. Of course, it hurts right now, but I’m already looking forward to Austria.”
According to the Mercedes driver, there were no prior signs of the problem. Furthermore, Antonelli had slightly damaged his front wing due to the high curbs on the Barcelona track. “I lost a little downforce because of that, but it didn’t affect my car too much,” said the championship leader.
Antonelli can’t say exactly why the Mercedes failed. “Most of the problems [so far] have been related to the battery,” Antonelli explains.
“But they were always different issues, so it wasn’t always the same one. So we need to figure out what it was. But the symptom is clear, just like with George in Montreal, when the car just died. We’re going to dig deep into that to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Speaking to Sky UK, Toto Wolff emphasized that in a world championship, you really can’t afford to lose a car out of the points “every other race.” After all, Russell had to retire from the Canadian Grand Prix due to technical issues.
Elsewhere, the 54-year-old puts it this way: “We can’t afford to have two cars retire on a regular basis. We lost 25 points in the Constructors’ Championship in Montreal and another 18 today. To win, you first have to finish the race.”
“That’s why we need to work on our reliability; that’s our priority. Nobody is happy about this, and we’ll leave no stone unturned to figure it out.”
When asked by Sky whether Antonelli’s retirement was due to the duel between the two Silver Arrows, Wolff replied: “No, no, not at all. George and Kimi were simply racing hard against each other, and that’s where we’re losing time on the track. We need to discuss that with them for the future.”
Thanks to the duel, Lewis Hamilton managed to catch up to the two Mercedes drivers in his Ferrari. A three-stop strategy and a lucky VSC brought the most successful Formula 1 driver of all time his 106th Grand Prix victory.
On Sky Deutschland, Wolff accordingly emphasized that “Kimi could have won,” according to his assessment. The technical problems would not have changed the championship leader’s theoretical speed anyway.
At times, a time penalty for Antonelli due to track limits was on the table. Turn ten in particular was often a problem for the 19-year-old on race Sunday. “My wheels locked up a lot during the first stint,” Antonelli said into the Sky microphone. “And I made too many mistakes in turn ten.”
“I was taking too many risks there, even though Bono reminded me of it every lap. But yeah, I was just pushing.”
With the high tire wear, it was anything but easy to keep up with the competition behind him, Antonelli explains. “After I passed George, the car really came to life. But I couldn’t capitalize on the pace because the car broke down.”
Still, Antonelli admits: “I think it would have been impossible to catch Lewis, because he was too far ahead. So it would have been P2, but that hurts. I’m still happy for him, though, that he was able to secure his first win for Ferrari.”
After his third pit stop, Hamilton was ahead of both Mercedes drivers due to the VSC and was able to build a lead of over ten seconds on fresher tires. At that point, Antonelli was still behind Russell in third place.
