Mercedes remain committed to Kimi Antonelli despite another challenging weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix, where the 19-year-old's strong race pace was overshadowed by costly errors.
The Italian's weekend in Zandvoort highlighted both his potential and ongoing struggles, but the Brackley squad's chief communications officer, Bradley Lord, has defended a messy event for the young driver.
After crashing in Friday practice and qualifying P11, Antonelli collided with Charles Leclerc while fighting for fifth position on lap 53.
The incident, caused by understeer at Turn 3, sent Leclerc spinning into the barriers and earned Antonelli a 10-second penalty.
He also received an additional five seconds' worth of punishment for pit lane speeding, dropping him to P16 at the chequered flag.
"I think as people have done their mid-season evaluations, Kimi’s had a little bit of criticism and perhaps some suggestions that things aren’t working out," said Lord in the eight-time constructors' champion's post-round debrief.
"And we’ve been really clear all along that this is a learning year for him. It’s come very early. He’s still very young and very early in his career trajectory as well.
"So we know there will be mistakes, but what we’re looking for are the signs and the indications that he is learning, that he’s building his experience and building his capability as a Formula 1 driver too.
"And there were lots of those in Zandvoort. So if you look at his race pace, you look at the improvement and the step he made in qualifying, notwithstanding a pretty troubled practice session. There are lots of really good ingredients there.
"It didn’t all quite come together in Zandvoort, with the penalties obviously for collision and pit lane speeding at the end of the race. And then obviously, some incidents in practice."
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A silver lining
However, the mistakes in Zandvoort are just the latest in a string of setbacks for Antonelli, which contrast sharply with his explosive start to his debut season.
Following a debut fourth-place finish in Australia, he delivered consistent points finishes and became the youngest driver to lead a race before claiming his maiden podium at the Canadian Grand Prix.
But, aside from that performance in Montreal, Antonelli has scored points in just one other race over the past nine rounds.
It is a run that has included two race-ending crashes, taking out Max Verstappen and Leclerc, respectively, and raising questions about his development.
His problems over the period were caused and compounded by the since-discarded rear suspension upgrade Mercedes introduced at Imola.
Nonetheless, a contract extension is imminent, and the team continues to wholeheartedly support him.
That update made the W16 less stable, especially through longer corners, something that sapped Antonelli's confidence and instigated his loss of form.
"But when we look at the pure underlying performance, we can see good progress, and we can see that he’s got much more confidence in the car now that we’ve reverted on the rear suspension configuration," Lord explained, highlighting a silver lining to a difficult weekend for the rookie.
"So we’re hopeful of seeing that confidence continue to build and Kimi’s performance continue to do the same over the races ahead."
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Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding, as they look back on the Dutch GP but also look ahead to Monza! Lewis Hamilton's huge grid penalty is a lead discussion, as is the mountain Lando Norris now faces in the F1 drivers' title fight.
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