Kimi Antonelli at Silverstone: Failure instead of victory – here’s what Mercedes has to say about the retirement

As the thrilling British Grand Prix drew to a close, Kimi Antonelli looked set to be the winner: in his Mercedes, he was hot on the heels of race leader Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, with no one setting faster lap times than the 19-year-old Italian.

With just five seconds to go before the Bolognese driver could launch an attack on Leclerc, he suddenly slowed down on the Hangar Straight on lap 41 and reported suspension problems over the radio.

Mercedes brought the teenager into the pits, changed his tyres and sent him back out. But the problem persisted. So another pit stop was called; by then it was clear what had happened – an internal air deflector had broken and become lodged in the suspension.

Simone Resta, deputy technical director of the Mercedes F1 team, has now spoken about the unusual fault. The Italian said: “It was simply a fault with a part of the brake ventilation system, which we refer to as the wheel cover. This component came loose and began to significantly impair the car’s chassis behaviour and steering.”

“This made Kimi’s car very, very sluggish and almost undriveable. But Kimi was really very resilient. He was determined to keep the car on the track and maintain his best chance of scoring points. However, the car was almost impossible to control, which is why Kimi went off the track a few times. Unfortunately, this cost him a five-second penalty at the end of the race.”

At Mercedes, it is thought that the wheel cover failed to withstand a hard ride over the kerbs and therefore broke.