The first qualifying for Mercedes at the F1 Australian GP for Kimi Antonelli definitely didn’t went according to plan.
Multiple adverse circumstances for Antonelli
In fact, the young Italian failed to advance from Q1, and will thus start the F1 Australian GP race tomorrow from P16. At the last minute Sauber’s Bortoleto had gone faster than him, effectively pushing him into the cutting zone.
Plenty of causes concurred to the unexpected elimination for the Mercedes driver. Antonelli had picked up floor damage over the span of Q1, which costed him 0.3s on his final attempt, and he also had only one attempt on the soft tyres. In fact, for his first run he had used mediums.
Antonelli went over his session for Sky, recounting how this strategy had been decided beforehand and what instead hadn’t gone according to plan.
“I think it was was something we agreed with the team. We knew maybe with the medium tyre Lap 1 maybe would have not been optimal, but lap 2 normally the tyre improved. But we decided to change plan at the very end and go straight on softs.”
Severe floor damage
The former Prema driver also broke down the circumstances during which he picked out floor damage, which significantly slowed him down especially on the straights.
“In Turn 6, that lot of gravel that was on the curb really broke my car because the floor got a spot of big damage afterwards and it was kind of hanging. I could feel the car bottoming massively in the straight.”
“It’s a shame because without the damage probably it would have been a different qualifying.” The Italian concluded heartbroken. After leading a testing session and achieving a P5 during the final practise session of the F1 Australian GP, he definitely had higher expectations for his first weekend as a full time Mercedes driver.
A silver lining
This will also turn into a learning experience for Antonelli, who mourns what could have been:
“Definitely, I mean it’s not ideal because looking at how we did in FP3 definitely we could have done more, we could have played for a better result.”
“But it’s what it is and now we move on, and we see what we can do tomorrow” He summed up, looking forward to a chance to prove his worth.
The talented driver has already had some strong recovery drives in his feeder series curriculum, but will he be able to confirm his form in F1 as well?
