James Alison, Technical Director of Mercedes, said on Tuesday that the team made errors in developing his car in the Formula 1 World Championship, and that the suffering of the young Italian driver Kimi Antonelli is as a result.
Antonelle, 18, ranked third in Canada last June, to ascend for the first time on the podium in Formula 1, but since then he has not been able to achieve any point.
The Italian withdrew twice since the Montreal race, in addition to its 17th place in the speed race in Belgium last Saturday, then 16th in the major Belgium award race on Sunday.
Antonelle, who was the first to start the speed race in Miami and the youngest driver ever topped a race in Formula 1, did not complete four of the last seven races, and admitted in Belgium that he lacks confidence in the car and does not drive it as he wanted.
“I think, like all of us, was fed up with a series of results, which was much less than what we were achieving collectively earlier in the year,” Alison said in a media briefing after the Belgium race.
He added, “I hope that he will find some condolences in the fact that we told him that we took the wrong steps in the car, which made our team less competitive, and that it pays the price of that as is the case with George (Russell).”
He continued: «If the car is not in the required case, you will suffer during the qualifying experiments in your first season as an ascending contestant in Formula 1.
Alison confirmed that it is “completely clear” to everyone that the car needs to become better, and that Antonelle’s chances will improve when that happens.
He continued: “We hope that he will listen to us when we say these reassuring words because we know exactly that he is doing effort in relation to it.”
Mercedes is third in the manufacturers’ championship, 28 points behind second -placed Ferrari, after Russell achieved one victory in Canada.
Russell climbed five times on the coronation platform, and is fourth in the driver championship ranking with 157 points, while Antonelle scored 63 points.
The seven -time world champion Luis Hamilton, whose seat was occupied in Mercedes when the British moved to Ferrari, showed his support for the Italian after the qualifying trials at the Francurshan Spa on Saturday.
The Italian told reporters: “He asked me to keep my head up, and that it is natural that I face bad times, and to continue to trust myself.”
Hamilton told Sky Sports that he could not imagine what the rising driver is going through.
He added, “His performance was great, but to throw him into difficult races when he was eighteen years old … He had not obtained a driver’s license when the race started for the first time.”
