Jacques Villeneuve tells Kimi Antonelli to make drastic behind-the-scenes Mercedes change after Dutch Grand Prix

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be desperately hoping that his upcoming home race at Monza helps him turn around a really difficult spell of form.

Mercedes put their faith in Kimi Antonelli after Lewis Hamilton decided to join Ferrari, but his results have been mixed to say the least.

Antonelli has only scored one point since his podium finish at the Canadian Grand Prix and is now level on points with Williams star Alex Albon.

The summer break appeared to come at the right time for Antonelli after his qualifying struggles at Spa and barely squeezing into the points at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

However, Antonelli failed to reach Q3 at the Dutch Grand Prix, although he was only a couple of tenths off George Russell, and the race ended in disaster for the 19-year-old.

Antonelli apologised to Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur after he misjudged a move on Charles Leclerc and put him into the barriers.

He then picked up a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, and 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has identified a change behind the scenes that Antonelli now needs to consider to improve his form.

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Jacques Villeneuve questions the influence of Kimi Antonelli’s father at Mercedes at the Dutch Grand Prix

Villeneuve was asked before the race on Sky Sports F1 (31/8 1:48 pm) how Antonelli can arrest the spiral he’s currently dealing with and said: “It’s tough, it’s tough. You have to change your surroundings, you have to change everything.

“You can’t carry on the same way. The people around him, you see, we get the impression that his dad is more involved with him than the team, for example.

“And that’s never a good thing because it hasn’t worked so far.

“So, what do you do? Is he good enough? Is he a driver who was good in the small cars, not good in the big cars?

“This is something we’ll have to find out.”

Antonelli crossed the line in sixth at Zandvoort, but once his penalties were applied, he ended up finishing P16.

With Isack Hadjar earning praise from Lewis Hamilton for his first F1 podium and Oliver Bearman achieving the best result of his career from the pit lane, the pressure is increasing on Antonelli as his fellow rookies continue to take steps forward.

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Schiff was asked about race engineer Peter Bonnington’s role in mentoring Antonelli after years of working with Hamilton and admitted: “It’s a completely different challenge working with a seven-time world champion versus a rookie who has just come in.

“I think they’ve pressed the reset button over the summer break. I know that they felt like Kimi really needed that.

“He was on a downward spiral before the summer break, of course, this weekend didn’t start well, but he got really unlucky, well, he just was pipped by a few hundredths of a second to get into Q3, and I think it could have looked very different for him in qualifying yesterday.

“But, step by step, I know we say this is not a finishing school, but, at the end of the day, they took a risk on him.

“They could have left him in F2 for another year and prepared him for a little bit longer. They didn’t decide to do that, so these are a part of the growing pains that are to be expected.”

The adaptation period for Antonelli was expected by team principal Toto Wolff, but it might be underestimated how much time it’s taken Mercedes to get used to a new driver replacing Hamilton.

Villeneuve thinks Antonelli is getting worse this season, but the teenager will be keen to prove him and any other doubters wrong between now and the end of the campaign.