Mercedes, the problem that stopped Kimi is a mystery for now. And Wolff calls for analysis in the factory – VIDEO

The video of Antonelli’s accident Andrea Kimi Antonelli was very keen on a comeback towards the first position of Charles Leclerc, at least until the wheel shield positioned on the left front wheel, i.e. a relatively inexpensive part of the brake air intake, gave in, transforming his chase after the GP leader into an ordeal for survival in the (later failed) attempt to collect at least a handful of points. A video, published already on Sunday evening on the Formula 1 social channels, also visually certifies what stopped the world championship leader – at the same time reopening the contention for the championship given that George Russell is now -25 from the top and Lewis Hamilton at -32 – with the piece of carbon which suddenly ends up out of its housing after a not even very violent passage on the curb exiting the Copse curve. Toto Wolff wants to see clearly. But what really caused the damage still remains to be discovered, as also told by Toto Wolff in the press conference: “We had a problem with the wheel shield, which broke. It seemed like it was something related to the brake air intake, but in any case some pieces remained stuck on the front left and this is the reason why Antonelli couldn’t turn. We took a look at the car but it’s still not clear what happened.” Click here to add Formula Passion as your favorite source on Google Discover: you will find our contents more easily. The Mercedes team principal therefore added that there will have to be an “autopsy” of the component in the factory to certify the reasons for the failure and try to ensure that it does not happen again in the future, given that there are several circuits with curbs like the ones exiting Copse on the calendar: “We will have to take the car to the factory to collect this component and really understand what happened, why it happened and why we had such negative consequences with the driver who could no longer turn the car. Too bad, because he would have reached Charles.” Simone Resta speaks. Not even Mercedes vice-technical director Simone Resta doesn’t go into too much detail in the post-race debriefing organized by sponsor Akkodis. “It was a failure in the front brake duct – explains the ex-Ferrari, Sauber, Alfa Romeo and Haas engineer – in particular a wheel shield component. In practice, 10 laps from the end there was a breakage and the component loosened and began to interfere with the behavior of the suspension and steering. The car became almost undriveable but Kimi showed great tenacity because he wanted to stay on the track to collect points. Unfortunately, however, the car was really difficult to control and for this reason he went off the track a couple of times, which cost him a five-second penalty. A real shame for that member, but also another clear demonstration of Antonelli’s resilience.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-07-08 06:00:00