Kimi Antonelli was never going to replicate his Monza heroics at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Mercedes insists, as the team sheds light on the challenges that hindered his Baku recovery.
Deputy team principal Bradley Lord explained that a technical issue in Thursday practice cost Antonelli valuable track time. He completed just 25 laps all day, while most rivals covered around 45. The lack of data and feel with the car proved costly heading into qualifying.
Disaster struck in Q1 when Antonelli slammed the Turn 1 inside wall hard enough to terminally damage his car, forcing him to start 16th. Unlike Monza, where he was up to second by lap 16, in Baku he only reached the top 10 on lap 17 and eventually finished fifth.
“You can see today he was a little bit off George's pace, even when he was running in free air,” Lord pointed out. “And no doubt that's down, for him, A, to George having an incredibly strong weekend, and, B, just not quite getting the feeling with the car. Obviously he lost that time in FP1, was playing catch-up, and then had the incident in qualifying. It was important not to come into the race thinking this is going to be Monza 2.0. It's Baku, it's a very different circuit, different overtaking difficulty, different challenges, and he drove the race that was in front of him really well.”
Antonelli was indeed significantly slower than team-mate George Russell, with the most representative moments being the last seven laps before the first safety car and the last eight laps of the race. He was 0.447s down on average in that first period, then 0.619s in the latter – always on similar tyres. Despite this, Lord praised Antonelli's instinct to avoid a Turn 1 accident at the restart, even though his car sustained damage from a Haas.
“To get back to P5 – not to make any mistakes as well, that was a big part of it – was a really, really strong recovery drive and a very good sign for the races to come,” Lord added.
With this result, Antonelli demonstrated maturity in reading the race. While not as spectacular as Monza, he proved he can maximise opportunities in adversity. Mercedes remains optimistic about his development as he gains more experience.
Looking ahead, Antonelli is expected to challenge at the front again. On more familiar circuits, he has the potential to replicate his Monza form. Mercedes continues to provide full support to help their young driver adapt quickly to the demands of F1.
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