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Toto Wolff hinted that Mercedes would appeal Kimi Antonelli’s time penalty for track limits at the British Grand Prix, but his onboard footage shows he was completely wrong.
The Italian looked on course for a potential victory at Silverstone as he chased down Charles Leclerc in the closing stages. However, Antonelli suffered a broken wheel shield on the front left tyre, giving him a sudden loss of control.
The championship leader ran wide several times and dropped to P9 before Max Verstappen brought out the safety car. Antonelli was hit with a five-second time penalty and fell to 16th at the chequered flag.
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Toto Wolff was wrong about Kimi Antonelli’s British Grand Prix penalty – his onboard footage proves it
Antonelli was baffled by the penalty over the radio, telling his race engineer Peter Bonnington: “Yeah, but that’s a joke, mate. I didn’t do it on purpose. The car was broken. Like, I wasn’t even getting time.”
David Coulthard felt Antonelli’s penalty was ‘nonsense’, questioning how he was judged to have gained an advantage by running wide when his car could not turn properly.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Wolff swore five times over the radio, lamenting how Antonelli’s pace was wasted by the wheel shield failure. Speaking after the race via GPBlog, he hinted that Mercedes would appeal.
“So I don’t know the latest, but we’re definitely looking at the situation where we can avoid that penalty for track limits because he couldn’t turn the car,” he said. But Mercedes will not challenge the decision, and even if they did, Antonelli’s onboard footage shows the penalty was correct.
Jolyon Palmer initially believed the penalty was harsh, but as he analysed the footage on F1’s official YouTube channel, he saw Antonelli run wide and gain an advantage at Brooklands numerous times.
He said: “Why penalise Kimi when he wasn’t exceeding track limits to gain an unfair advantage? Now, I have to confess, I thought the same, as I was watching this live. I thought the penalty seemed incredibly harsh.
In 10 years from now, where do you think Kimi Antonelli will rank among F1’s greatest drivers?
“We can jump on board with Antonelli and this is why I thought it was harsh because we saw him a few times run into a corner and he can’t turn the car in. He’s going really deep, cuts it back with a clear car issue, and there’s no one that can tell me that that is gaining an advantage there for Antonelli.
“The problem is which we didn’t see a few of these other ones materialising. He does then stay out, and he does then clearly gain an advantage by going off the track even if he is still nursing an issue.
“You’ve got Stowe corner, turns it in, runs wide, keeps his foot in and gains time. Even if that is very slow, he’s driving a hobbled car and to stay on the track he’d have to just drive that little bit slower. It’s the same for Brooklands, and it’s the same for Brooklands again.
“You see there is consistency here. Now we’re getting back to Charles Leclerc territory for Miami, where he just has to stay on the track. It doesn’t matter that you’re driving a hobbled car at this moment. You can just see time and time again Antonelli running wide, changing the line, opening it up. That is actually a fair penalty.”
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