Andrea Kimi Antonelli endured one of the most frustrating races of his 2026 Formula 1 season at Silverstone. After challenging Charles Leclerc for the race lead and looking like a genuine contender for victory, the Mercedes driver suddenly found himself fighting simply to bring his damaged W17 to the finish.
After losing second place to the Ferraris at the start, Antonelli reclaimed the position from Lewis Hamilton before Copse and immediately tucked into the slipstream of race leader Charles Leclerc. When the Ferrari driver made his pit stop, the young Italian briefly inherited the lead, setting up what looked destined to become a thrilling battle with Leclerc for victory.
Everything changed on lap 41, however, when Antonelli’s Mercedes suddenly lost performance.
Vibrations generated while riding the kerbs at Turn 9 caused damage to the W17. Antonelli was forced to pit twice as Mercedes attempted to repair the problem, but despite the worsening situation, retirement was never on his mind as he tried to salvage valuable championship points.
“I couldn’t believe it because the situation kept getting worse,” Antonelli told F1TV after the race. “When I came back out after the final pit stop, the car was reasonably drivable, even though I was still missing a huge amount of downforce.”
Driving a damaged car inevitably led Antonelli to exceed the track limits on several occasions, resulting in a five-second penalty. Although he crossed the finish line in 10th place, the penalty dropped him to 16th in the final classification.
“I think tenth place was definitely achievable despite the penalty. I was pulling away and thought I would build enough of a gap, but then the Safety Car came out and I knew it was over.”
Despite the disappointing result, Antonelli also found positives to take away from the weekend.
“I’m disappointed and angry, but the important thing is that we were fast and I had a huge opportunity to win because I was catching them on the hard tyres. It’s a shame I never even had the chance to fight for it,” he told Sky Sport.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli: “I think there’s more damage than just the wheel shield”
Speaking after the race, Antonelli explained what he believes caused the technical problem.
“The problem seems to have been the wheel shield. It failed instantly. I was taking the kerbs exactly the same way every lap. I came out of Turn 9, at Copse, and suddenly felt something break. But we still don’t know if there was something else because, honestly, I think there may have been more damage than just the wheel shield.”
Mercedes initially tried to solve the issue by replacing the front wing, but the problem remained, forcing Antonelli to make a second pit stop.
“It’s a shame we had to make two pit stops. During the first one we changed the front wing, but the problem was still there. At the second stop they removed the damaged part, and after that the car was drivable—more or less. It’s frustrating because I think we still could have finished P6 or P7, and we probably could have avoided the penalty as well.”
“It’s a shame I never had the chance to fight for victory”
Thanks to his Sprint victory at Silverstone, Antonelli still leaves Britain leading teammate George Russell by 25 points in the Drivers’ Championship, although Russell reduced the gap considerably with his second-place finish.
This was Antonelli’s second pointless Grand Prix of the season after also missing out on a podium in Barcelona because of a reliability issue.
“We had an incredible run with five races and five consecutive victories, and probably everything had gone a little too much in my favour,” Antonelli said when asked about his recent change in fortune.
“Now we’ve had two retirements in the last three races, and that’s obviously difficult to accept because I was running second in Barcelona, while here I was fighting for victory. I think we genuinely had a chance to win. It’s a shame I didn’t even get the opportunity to try. That’s racing, and the most important thing is that we’ll come back stronger than before.”
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