Ex-F1 boss Guenther Steiner has told Andrea Kimi Antonelli he broke one golden rule during his first practice session last weekend.
The Mercedes protege, 18, found himself in a precarious position when he crashed during his debut in Monza last weekend, smashing into the wall ten minutes into the first practice session.
Chatting on the Red Flags Podcast with hosts Matt Elisofon and Guenther Steiner, the ex-Haas chief, dished out some insider info, laying bare the cardinal sin Antonelli committed by overtaking George Russell.
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Elisofon asked Steiner: “What’s the number one rule – the first thing you tell an F2 guy that’s taking over your car?” Steiner replied: “Don’t crash it… If you crash it, you will be remembered as the guy – bracket open, idiot, bracket closed – which crashed the car in his first FP1.
“If you finish second-last, last, third-last, fifth-last, eleventh in FP1 nobody really cares – everybody will have forgotten where you finished cause nobody cares in FP1 where you finish. So don’t crash it because everybody will remember it,” reports the Mirror.
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(Image: Formula 1 via Getty Images)
When further pressed by Elisofon, Steiner joked: “Because I didn’t speak with him you see.” Ex-team principal Eddie Jordan has expressed disappointment over Antonelli’s first Mercedes run out, venting on the Formula For Success podcast.
He said: “We always said that I thought the pressure of Mercedes would be too much for Kimi and his debut and his first run – and it turned out that’s the way it was.
“He spun out and he caused a lot of damage to the car. I still believe that there’s a place for Kimi but it’s not in Mercedes. That’s the point I’m trying to make. I don’t care how quick he is, he should be placed somewhere that will give Toto [Wolff] and his team the chance to learn for a year and come up that way.”
David Coulthard weighed in: “So you’re saying that you think it’s too early to be putting that sort of pressure on Antonelli. The flip side might be ‘well, Max [Verstappen] at 17 rocked up in Toro Rosso’ but maybe that move was more out of left field.”
Jordan added: “That’s perfect. That’s exactly what should happen. Max was in Toro Rosso. Kimi Antonelli should be in Williams or somewhere else where Toto can place him – it’s what we’ve been saying for ages.
“Remember what Bernie Ecclestone always used to say when you’d go looking for money or you’d go looking for anything you like. He said ‘Earn the right’. That’s all he’d say, earn the right to ask. At the moment, I don’t see how Antonelli has earned the right, not yet.”
Antonelli has a massive task ahead as he steps into Lewis Hamilton’s shoes for the 2025 season, replacing him as Russell’s Mercedes teammate.
Seven-time champ Hamilton revealed his departure from the Silver Arrows to join Ferrari next year, and Wolff is adamant that Antonelli is the ideal candidate to fill the legend’s spot. Speaking about Antonelli, he stated: “Our 2025 driver line-up combines experience, talent, youth and out-and-out raw speed.
“We are excited about what George and Kimi bring to the team both as individual drivers, but also as a partnership.”