Mercedes are planning to speak with new driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli to help him correct the mistake which made him crash few minutes into his Formula 1 race weekend debut.
The 18-year-old was announced last Saturday at Monza as Mercedes’ choice to replace Lewis Hamilton when he leaves for Ferrari at the end of the year.
Antonelli had taken part in his maiden practice session a day earlier, but it had ended much earlier than planned.
He was pushing hard to make an impression and jumped to the top of the timesheets with his first flying lap.
But the young Italian lost control as he tried to go even faster and ended up burying George Russell’s car into the tyre barrier at Parabolica.
Reflecting on that incident, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin sad the team will work with their young prodigy to help him refine his approach going forward.
He said: “A bit of a shame that he had that accident at Parabolica. The pace was certainly good, we’ll chat to him about building up a bit more gently in future and how you approach the race weekend but, yes, we’re looking forward to getting him in the car again, we’ll pick the right circuit for that.
“We’ve got a lot of Sprint races coming up so you’re not going to want to have a race driver missing their only free practice session at a Sprint race, so limited choice, but yes he will be back in and we’re looking forward to getting him back in the car.”
Just because the teenager has now landed an F1 seat, Mercedes won’t halt their efforts to prepare him for competitive action.
His Testing of Previous Cars programme will continue and Antonelli will also get the chance to make more of an impression in another practice appearance later in the current campaign.
Shovlin confirmed that plan and added:
“Yes there will be [another FP1 appearance], because the regulations require that both of our race drivers give up their seat for a Friday practice session. Kimi, being our driver for next year, of course we’re going to use him.
“He obviously didn’t get as much mileage as we’d hoped for [at Monza]. We have been doing and we are doing work with some of our previous cars, giving Kimi the opportunity to experience the car, the tyres over a range of circuits, that’s going to continue.”
F1 teams tend to avoid giving young drivers a go in FP1 sessions at Sprint events, because there is only the one hour of practice, and at street circuits.
Of the remaining eight rounds, that means the Grands Prix in Mexico City and Abu Dhabi are the most likely venues for another Antonelli appearance.
