Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted they should have done more to alleviate the strain on Andrea Kimi Antonelli at his home race last week.
The team’s rookie participated in his first home event as a grand prix driver at Imola, near his home city Bologna. He invited many friends and family to the race, but Wolff said the demands on his time proved too much.
Wolff said the team may have made a similar error when they handed Antonelli his debut appearance in an F1 practice session in Italy last year, at Monza. He crashed early on in the first practice session.
“This is a learning process,” said Wolff. “We concluded last year that we’ve made a mistake in maybe exposing him in Monza in his first ever running in FP1 to the local crowds, and he wanted to perform particularly well.
“I think that Imola was probably the perfect storm because it’s where he lives. It’s his home track, school, family, local football club, all the people that helped throughout his career. Everybody wanted to have a little bit of Kimi.”
Antonelli was feeling the strain by the first day of practice, said Wolff. “Even as early as Friday, he was just toast.
“I spoke to him on Saturday and he said, ‘I’m out of energy [from] all of this.’ And it’s clear, he’s young, he wants to say thank you to everyone that participated. He doesn’t want to be unfriendly to friends, family, fans, all of them around.”
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Wolff encouraged Antonelli to take some time to himself before the grand prix. “The guidance I gave to him at a certain stage [was] you need to protect yourself, hide yourself in your room, in the engineering room on the Sunday, and everything else just comes second.
“I think all of us together, the family, we realised that that was too much, and that is a mistake we will not repeat.”
Antonelli retired from the race with a throttle problem on his car. This weekend he is racing for the first time at Monaco in F1, and Wolff said the team won’t set their expectations of him too high.
“Driving the car here fast needs experience and I think he started the weekend very well in building up in the right way, not making too many mistakes. He clipped the inside of the barrier [in practice], but that wasn’t hugely damaging for the car, and then slowly continuing to find his limits.
“I think laps are important, to put them in, and just make him learn. But I have no doubt that by qualifying he’s going to be dialled in. Obviously, never on the level of the really more senior drivers that know their way around here blind.”
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