Teenager Antonelli paying price for 'wrong steps' by Mercedes
LONDON - Mercedes have made mistakes in developing their Formula One car and teenage Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli's struggles are a consequence of that, according to technical director James Allison.
Antonelli, 18, finished third in Canada in June for his first F1 podium but has since failed to score.
He has had two retirements since Montreal as well as 17th in a sprint race in Belgium last Saturday and then 16th in Sunday's main grand prix.
The Italian, who took a sprint pole in Miami and is the sport's youngest ever race leader, has retired four times in the last seven rounds and admitted in Belgium he was lacking confidence in the car and not driving as he would like.
"I think he's, like the rest of us, massively fed up with a string of results that are well below what we were collectively achieving earlier in the year," Allison said in a Belgian race debrief on Tuesday.
"I hope he takes some solace from the fact that we tell him, and it's demonstrably a fact, that we have taken the wrong steps with the car, making our team less competitive, and that he is paying the price for that, as is George (Russell).
"If the car isn't where it needs to be, then it will be a struggle getting through the qualifying stages in your rookie season in F1."
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Business No clarity yet on baseline or pharmaceutical tariffs with US: DPM Gan
Singapore Grace Fu apologises for Tanjong Katong sinkhole, says road may stay closed for a few more days
Singapore Terrorism threat in Singapore remains high, driven by events like Israeli-Palestinian conflict: ISD
Singapore Liquidators score victory to recoup over $900 million from alleged scammer Ng Yu Zhi's associates
Singapore Man on trial for raping woman who hired him to repair lights in her flat
Sport IOC president Kirsty Coventry a 'huge supporter' of Singapore
Singapore Child and firefighter among 7 taken to hospital after fire breaks out in Toa Payoh flat
Singapore S'pore can and must meaningfully apply tech like AI in a way that creates jobs for locals: PM Wong
Allison said it was "utterly clear" to everyone that the car needed to be better and Antonelli's fortunes would improve when it was.
"Hopefully he's listening to us as we say those reassuring words because we absolutely know that he is putting in the effort on his side of that bargain," he added.
Mercedes are third overall, 28 points behind second-placed Ferrari, with one win by Russell in Canada. Russell has been on the podium five times and is fourth overall with 157 points to Antonelli's 63.
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, whose seat Antonelli took when the Briton moved to Ferrari, showed his support for the Italian after Saturday qualifying at Spa.
"He was telling me to keep my head up, and that it's normal to have bad weekends, and to just keep believing," the Italian told reporters.
Hamilton told Sky Sports television he could not imagine what the rookie was going through.
"He's been doing fantastic. But to be thrown in at the deep end at 18... he hadn't even had his driving licence when he first started racing," he said. REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AsiaOne
2 hours ago
- AsiaOne
Italy arrests 13 people in nationwide raids against Chinese mafia groups, World News
ROME — Italian police arrested 13 people following a nationwide sweep against Chinese mafia groups, on charges including involvement in crimes such as drug dealing, sex trafficking and aggravated robbery, they said on Monday (Aug 4). Raids were conducted in 25 provinces, including Milan, Rome, Florence, Prato and Catania, anti-organised crime police official Andrea Olivadese said. Police reported a further 31 people to judicial authorities without arresting them, and seized 550 grams (1.2 pounds) or around 5,500 doses of "shabu" crystal methamphetamines, and checked hundreds of shops and vehicles. The gangs' crimes tend to exclusively target fellow Chinese, and, like traditional mafias, they "resort to intimidation and/or violence to achieve their goals" and seek to dominate the territory where they operate, police said. The Chinese mob groups operate "with a deeply rooted concept of revenge that can take the form of a feud," they added. In April, a senior figure in the Chinese underworld and a companion were shot dead in Rome, in what police suspected was part of a turf war within Chinese criminal networks in Italy. Chinese gangs use the informal Hawala payment system to transfer money, and are "in constant dialogue" with other criminal organisations in Italy to share business and zones of influence, police said. The gang members tend to hail from the same region in China and have a stronger foothold in parts of Italy with more Chinese residents, such as Tuscany, police noted. Prato, a Tuscan city famous for its textile industry and its large Chinese community, has a long-running problem with labour exploitation, particularly among undocumented immigrants. The arrests announced on Monday follow separate investigations exposing alleged worker abuse among Italian but Chinese-owned workshops in the supply chain of luxury brands such as Valentino, Giorgio Armani and Loro Piana. [[nid:720264]]
Straits Times
9 hours ago
- Straits Times
Italian judges dismiss case against Meloni over release of Libyan suspect
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reacts as she speaks to the media at a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Greco/File Photo ROME - An Italian judicial body has dropped a case against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who had been placed under investigation following the release of a Libyan police officer wanted by the International Criminal Court, she said on Monday. Osama Elmasry Njeem was freed in January and flown home in an Italian state aircraft just days after being detained in the northern city of Turin under an ICC arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and rape. "The judges dismissed the case only against me," Meloni said in a post on social media X. She was under investigation for allegedly aiding and abetting a crime and misuse of public funds. Meloni added that based on the document she received, magistrates will pursue the case against Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio and Cabinet Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, who had been placed under investigation with her. "I maintain that this government acts cohesively under my leadership: every decision, especially one so important, is agreed upon. It is therefore absurd to request that Piantedosi, Nordio and Mantovano stand trial, but not myself, before them," Meloni wrote on X. The ICC has been investigating allegations of serious crimes committed in Libya since the country's 2011 civil war following a referral by the U.N. Security Council. Justice Minister Nordio told parliament in February that Italy had no choice but to free Elmasry due to mistakes and inaccuracies in the arrest warrant. REUTERS
Straits Times
10 hours ago
- Straits Times
McLaren must also deal with disappointment amid runaway success
Formula One F1 - Hungarian Grand Prix - Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary - August 3, 2025 McLaren's Lando Norris celebrates on the podium after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix with second placed McLaren's Oscar Piastri REUTERS/Marton Monus LONDON - McLaren boss Zak Brown is preparing to deal with disappointment at the end of the Formula One season, even as the team enjoy one of their most dominant years and a 200th grand prix win at the weekend. As the title battle between Oscar Piastri and teammate Lando Norris heats up, the McLaren pair separated by just nine points after Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, the American conceded he was thinking also about how to handle the aftermath. Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen, the McLaren drivers' closest rival, is now 97 points off the pace and told reporters at the weekend that he may not win again this year given his car's issues. Even before the weekend, both Piastri and Norris cast caution aside and called it a two-horse race. One of them will surely end the year celebrating a dream come true. The other will rue what might have been, with a new engine era next season shaking everything up again and chances potentially disappearing. Losing always hurts, doubly so when it is to a teammate with the same car, and Brown said McLaren would have to deal with the situation sensitively when -- although he still insisted on saying if -- the time came. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore launches review of economic strategy to stay ahead of global shifts Singapore A look at the five committees reviewing Singapore's economic strategy World Trump says he will 'substantially' raise tariffs on India over Russian oil purchases Singapore Strong S'pore-Australia ties underpinned by bonds that are continually renewed: President Tharman Singapore All recruits at BMTC will be trained to fly drones and counter them: Chan Chun Sing Sport Singaporean swimmer Gan Ching Hwee at 'crossroads' after World Aquatics C'ships display Singapore Ong Beng Seng to be sentenced on Aug 15, prosecution does not object to fine due to his poor health Singapore Pritam Singh had hoped WP would 'tip one or two more constituencies' at GE2025 "Eventually... we'll just sit down and actually have a conversation and go 'right, one of you is going to win and it's going to be the best day of your life. One of you is going to lose. How do you want us to handle that?'," he told a select group of reporters. "We'll actually sit down and go 'Right, you want us to jump up and down and celebrate? This guy won'. So we're fully aware and sensitive to 'how do you celebrate that situation?'." Australian Piastri has won six races to Norris's five but the Briton has momentum going into the August break, with three wins from his last four starts. The pair have had seven one-two finishes from 14 races, including the last four, and have left rivals trailing. McLaren are so far ahead in the constructors' standings -- 299 points over Ferrari -- that the crown is a given. Much has been made of the potential for a falling out between friends, for clashes on track given what is at stake, but Brown was sanguine and said the relationship was only growing stronger. When Norris ran into the back of Piastri as he challenged for the lead in Canada in June, the Briton defused the situation by immediately taking responsibility. Piastri locked up behind Norris in Hungary on Sunday, in what could have been a repeat of that Montreal accident, but no contact was made. Brown said there was no 'elephant in the room' at McLaren, with the drivers having complete transparency on strategy and how the team go about racing, and he expected more close calls in future. "There's competitiveness brewing... as the championship builds, I'm sure that tension will grow," said the boss. "We're fully anticipating them 'swapping paint' again at some point, I'm very confident it won't be deliberate, which is where you then get into the problems. "They will have racing incidents in their further time here at McLaren, we know that and they know that, so we're not afraid of that. "I'm positive they're never going to run each other off the track, and that's where you get into bad blood. So they're free to race... there are rules around our racing, which is respect your teammate, they know that." REUTERS
