SILVERSTONE, UK — Kimi Antonelli, the last driver remaining in the post-race media pen after the British Grand Prix, was stoic and unemotional. If anything, it was a mature driver, beyond his 19 years, who stood fielding questions about the recent bout of bad luck that has significantly reduced a once-healthy championship lead.The teenager won the sprint race Saturday thanks to some clever racing, and he looked as if he would challenge Charles Leclerc for the victory on Sunday, holding the advantage with the tire offset.But for the second time in three races, a mechanical issue sent Antonelli tumbling out of points — although this time he didn’t have to retire the car as he finished 16th.While Antonelli’s radio messages during the race at Silverstone sounded a bit heightened at times, the Italian was calm and composed after the race, despite George Russell’s second-place finish closing the championship points gap to 25. Antonelli, who has made history numerous times this season, was adamant momentum was still with him.
“This weekend, we showed the speed,” he explained. “We showed as well what the potential can be when I’m in a good place, when also we’re in a good place with the team, with the car. We showed what we are capable of.“The momentum is still there, but actually it makes the fire grow even more to go out there in Spa (the next race in Belgium) and try to do even better.”The British GP was a long game, one where strategy was paramount.Ferrari didn’t seem optimistic at the start of the weekend about its odds, given that Silverstone is an energy-starved track. Unlike Austria’s track, the British track features long straights and high-speed corners, leaving very few opportunities for drivers to recharge their cars’ batteries. Considering Ferrari’s power deficit to Mercedes, it seemed the Silver Arrows would have the edge, as they have for most of the season.But the Ferrari duo shot past Antonelli at the start, with eventual winner Leclerc maintaining the lead. Antonelli managed to get past Hamilton at the Copse turn on Lap 11 and set his sights on Leclerc.While Ferrari opted to pit Leclerc on Lap 25 for hard tires, Mercedes extended Antonelli’s stay on the track. Though the Ferrari driver was gaining during that stretch, the advantage was reduced by the time Mercedes pitted Antonelli.Antonelli rejoined the grid 7.3 seconds behind Leclerc, a gap that narrowed as the laps went by. A virtual safety car period chipped away at it a bit more, and it looked like Antonelli could catch Leclerc. That was until the Mercedes began slowing down.On Lap 41, Antonelli began reporting that something was broken.He dove into the pits, and Mercedes changed the front wing and changed to the medium tires. It didn’t solve the issue, and the team learned the left front-wheel shield had failed.“I lost, I don’t know how much downforce. The car wouldn’t turn anymore,” Antonelli said after the race. “In some of the corners, the wheel was in the air, so there was something full dimension that was broken. We already know now that the wheel shield broke, but we don’t know if something else broke, because by the loss, it feels like it was more than just a wheel shield.”Kimi Antonelli’s front wing was changed during the British GP. (Mark Thompson / Getty Images)Antonelli refused to retire the car, convinced he could score points in some capacity. He may have done so had it not been for the track limits infringement penalty he incurred in those final laps. The stewards said in their decision a mechanical issue wasn’t “a justifiable reason for leaving the track.”“These are the rules, so I cannot do anything about it,” Antonelli said. “I was trying my best to stay on track, but it was really undrivable. To get a penalty for that, it hurts”Shortly after the race, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the Italian driver couldn’t turn the car, and so they were looking to see if they could avoid the penalty. Later, the team told The Athletic it wouldn’t protest.Mercedes leaves its home race weekend with a “bittersweet” feeling, as Wolff described it.Antonelli felt he had a shot at winning before the car issue arose. Wolff initially didn’t think it was possible, but admitted he was wrong, saying: “The strategies with the data were right, and they said we’re going to catch six laps to the end with a huge tire offset.”Russell overcame weeks of struggling with his car to secure a first podium finish at his home race, his second podium in as many races.“I don’t really know how to sum it up because it’s been a very challenging weekend,” the Briton, who suffered a puncture during the race and got lucky with the safety car that ended the race, explained in the post-race news conference.Kimi Antonelli finished 16th at Silverstone. (Peter Fox / Getty Images)A mixture of factors, both outside and within his control, he said, were behind his issues. A third-place finish — behind Leclerc and Antonelli — would have been a fair result, Russell admitted, had the result gone that way.“I’m still struggling to understand this car,” Russell said. “I (will) probably still leave this weekend, albeit extremely grateful to stand on the podium, less satisfied than probably Canada, when I broke down from the lead.“And if I want to fight for the championship, the performances need to be better. I need to be better. I need to be working better with my team.”With just two races remaining before the summer break, the 25-point gap between championship leader Antonelli and Russell is small, while Hamilton is close behind, 32 points adrift.These mechanical issues are matters Mercedes is looking into. And it must, given the back-to-back DNFs in Montreal in May and Barcelona last month, even before Antonelli’s issues at Silverstone, and the recent upswing in Ferrari’s performance, winning two of the last three grands prix, as well as the development war unfolding in the paddock.“I’d rather dial back something that is really good and fix some of the reliability gremlins rather than running behind on performance,” Wolff said, “and so far we’ve won six races out of (nine).“I’d rather have this than slow and reliable.”It’s all to play for.
