Martin Brundle slams Kimi Antonelli approach with triple impact ...

Ex-F1 racer Martin Brundle said Kimi Antonelli “needed to play himself in somewhat more carefully” after his FP1 crash on debut with Mercedes at Monza.

Antonelli – the driver expected to be named as Mercedes’ F1 2025 Lewis Hamilton replacement – got his first taste of an F1 race weekend at Monza in the opening practice session as he took over George Russell’s W15 and quickly went to the top of the timings. But, a crash just 10 minutes into the session soon made that a distant memory.

Antonelli would lose the rear of the Mercedes going into Parabolica, sending him slamming into the barriers and triggering the red flags. He was thankfully unhurt in the incident.

And Brundle sees a triple threat of negative impacts from that crash, with Mercedes now having a lack of data and a damaged W15 to fix, while claiming they will also have a young driver whose confidence has now been knocked.

In Brundle’s opinion, Antonelli needed to exercise greater caution and build his way into the session.

“It was the last thing he or the team needed,” said Sky F1 pundit Brundle.

“They haven’t got any data, the car is damaged, his confidence will be damaged.

“Mercedes want to present him as a star of the future. He pushed very, very hard early on, he’d just gone purple in the second sector, slightly fractionally ahead of Lewis, and he was expecting too much too soon, obviously, got in and there was not enough grip for the speed that he was carrying.

“It’s such a shame. I admire his confidence, but he needed to play himself in somewhat more carefully than that.”

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Asked how this crash will impact Antonelli psychologically, Brundle said “it’ll just bounce off” if he is of a Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or Max Verstappen level.

“Well, if he’s, as we’re told, sort of Schumacher, Senna, Max Verstappen level, it’ll just bounce off,” said Brundle.

“I’ll never forget watching Michael Schumacher smash up Nelson Piquet’s Benetton and we’re like, ‘Right, now we’ll see how good Michael Schumacher is’.

“Got back in his own one and the next lap was fastest of anybody, because he had that supreme inner confidence to go with his talent. And we’ll find out whether young Antonelli is the same.”

Russell will be back in the Mercedes for FP2.

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