Mercedes searching for answers after Kimi Antonelli’s pace fell off in F1 Dutch GP

Mercedes has launched a “deep dive” into Kimi Antonelli’s performance at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix after the championship leader revealed he had a “difficult second half” of the race as he struggled with the balance of his W17.

Antonelli had a strong start to the grand prix. After qualifying third, he jumped team-mate George Russell off the line to secure second place before the end of lap one. However, with each tyre change he completed, the championship leader found more and more issues with his car.

“It was really weird because I felt good with the medium. I felt decent on the first hard, but then on the second one it just felt really odd,” Antonelli explained after finishing runner-up to McLaren's Lando Norris.

Now, Mercedes has confirmed that it is looking into the issues Antonelli faced to try and get to the bottom of them before the next round in Italy.

“Each tyre had a bit more oversteer than the tyre before it and we're trying to understand why that was,” explained Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin in the team’s Dutch GP debrief video.

“Now, we didn't change the car, we didn't add any aero balance, which is the sort of thing that could have explained it. So, we're having a real deep dive into the data and try and get to the bottom of that because it's important to solve those sort of things ahead of the next race.

“It's obviously getting really tight now in terms of performance. We're still waiting for our major update to land and that will help but in the meantime, it is going to be a bit of a fight.”

Antonelli said the issue left him with “little confidence in the car” towards the end of the race, when he was defending against the charging Ferrari pair of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, plus closing in on Russell.

In the end, as Antonelli and Russell were on offset strategies, the Briton let his young team-mate through, which allowed Antonelli to secure second and extend his championship lead.

“George, you know, I have to thank him because he made my life a lot easier,” Antonelli explained. “But I still think probably could have stayed out and gone until the end with the same set because it put us a little bit at risk. Also, I feel we put George at risk with having to let me by and everything.

"But I still think, at the end of the day, it was a great team execution with how things were, and I think today P2 was the maximum we could have done because the pace of the McLarens, especially in the second half, was just too strong.”

Mercedes will be hoping it can uncover the issue ahead of Antonelli’s home race in Italy, where it has confirmed that he will take an engine penalty as a result of reliability issues he faced earlier in the season.

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