Toto Wolff concedes Kimi Antonelli is ‘disappointed’ with one thing Mercedes did at the British Grand Prix

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli registered his fourth retirement of the 2025 F1 season so far in the British Grand Prix after Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar drove into the Mercedes rookie.

The Italian wonderkid has now failed to see the chequered flag in four of the past six rounds after Antonelli retired from the Emilia Romagna, Spanish, Austrian and British Grands Prix. It is also the first time that the 18-year-old has failed to finish back-to-back races this season.

Antonelli was helpless to avoid his retirement in the British GP, as Racing Bulls rookie Hadjar accidentally drove into the Mercedes gem on Lap 17 of 52 at Silverstone on Sunday. The 20-year-old could not see the Bologna boy in the spray and rear-ended him heading into Copse.

Mercedes ultimately opted to retire their car on Lap 23 due to the damage that Hadjar dealt to Antonelli’s rear diffuser in the British GP. The Silver Arrows’ academy product was running in only P15 at the time of the incident, which also sent Antonelli to the very rear of the field.

Toto Wolff admits Kimi Antonelli left Silverstone ‘disappointed’ with Mercedes’ British GP strategy

Antonelli had achieved P7 in qualifying for the British GP, while Mercedes teammate George Russell managed P4 with a lap time 0.345s faster. But the Italian started the race in P10 due to Antonelli’s three-place grid penalty after crashing into Max Verstappen in the Austrian GP.

His grid penalty was just the first hurdle that Antonelli met at Silverstone, though. Mercedes elected to pit the Bologna boy on Lap 2 under the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) for Liam Lawson’s crash to take his intermediate tyres off for a set of the hard C2 compound slick Pirelli rubber.

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Silverstone’s track was still too wet for the dry tyres to be effective, which made Mercedes’ decision to pit Antonelli from P8 the wrong call. And team principal Toto Wolff admits that Antonelli was not happy with the strategy that Mercedes chose to gift him in the British GP.

Wolff said, via Motorsport-Total: “You simply couldn’t see anything. One man drove into the other’s car because he didn’t see him. That can happen under such circumstances… Kimi is disappointed, especially with how the team ran the race.”

Nico Hulkenberg showed Mercedes’ British GP strategy likely cost Kimi Antonelli a podium

Mercedes quickly reverted their decision to pit Antonelli for dry tyres with another stop on Lap 9 of 52 in the British GP to fit a new set of inters when the rain returned to Silverstone. Had he not stopped on L2, then Antonelli may have climbed to P4 once the field also pitted.

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Antonelli was running ahead of Sauber star Nico Hulkenberg in P11 when the VSC to recover Lawson’s stricken Racing Bulls was triggered and Mercedes elected to pit the Italian, having also pitted George Russell after the formation lap to remove the Briton’s intermediate tyres.

Yet making two pit stops within the first nine laps meant Antonelli was running in P15, while Hulkenberg was up in P4 by L13 as the rain returned and most drivers pitted for fresh inters. It set a platform which saw Hulkenberg get his first podium in 239 Grands Prix at Silverstone.

So, without his early pit stops which ultimately left Antonelli in a position to be taken out by Hadjar, the Italian will feel he may have made the British GP rostrum instead of Hulkenberg. It could have been the teenager’s second F1 podium after Antonelli’s P3 in the Canadian GP.