With the F1 British GP putting the drivers’ skills to the test on a rainy Silverstone, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli suffered his fourth DNF of the 2025 season. Although this retirement came as a result of contact with fellow rookie Isack Hadjar, the Italian struggled on the wet track. Moreover, Antonelli was unable to pick up any new points for the championship.
Nevertheless, Kimi Antonelli is on his way to picking up the Rookie of the Year trophy. With the best results so far out of all the other rookies, Antonelli is seventh in the Drivers’ Championship. The Mercedes driver claimed his first F1 podium in the Canadian GP. As rumours about a potential driver change circulate in the Mercedes garage, the Italian rookie has shown decent progress in his first full F1 season.
Overview of his first F1 British GP
The drivers faced one of the biggest challenges at any circuit: driving through a storm with low visibility. Antonelli’s F1 British GP met a quick end after an incident with Racing Bulls’ Hadjar. In the print media pen, the Mercedes driver seemed quite down and disappointed. Furthermore, Antonelli took a risky gamble with the tyres, switching to hards too early, which he claimed was not worth it.
“Yeah, I mean, first of all, I don’t know what to say. It seems like everything is going wrong at the moment, and it’s hard to find some positives. I think, yeah, just we took a gamble in lap one, which unfortunately didn’t work. Because, when I pitted, the VSC came out and just couldn’t build any temperature into the tyre. And then, when we went back on interest, obviously, the visibility was extremely poor.”
Nonetheless, the Italian confessed he could “feel” the DNF coming, due to the difficult conditions. He explained his point of view from inside the cockpit:
“I don’t know why, but I could feel it coming, you know, in the moment. And I was lucky to still keep it on track because the hit was massive. Yeah, just a shame to finish with another 0.”
“I mean, I think I lost like 100 points of downforce just because the whole diffuser was gone. And just extremely difficult to keep the car on track.”
The incident with fellow rookie
Due to the massive lack of visibility as the rain was pouring down at the F1 British GP, Isack Hadjar hit the rear of Antonelli’s Mercedes. However, the Italian did not jump to any accusations against the Racing Bulls driver. Kimi Antonelli recognised the lack of fault in that moment, admitting he was quite hesitant to even return to racing after his pit stop.
“No, no. I mean, no one to blame on. I think it was just… that’s why when they told me it was going to restart, I was a bit unsure about that. Because the visibility was still very poor at lower speed, so at higher speed would have been even worse.
“And just, yeah, I think Isack [Hadjar] was just a passenger. Obviously, I broke a bit earlier, but just because it was so hard to see where the corner was. And just Isack [Hadjar] couldn’t see me.”
Developments of his Mercedes
While this F1 British GP was not the best race to test the potential of the W16, according to Antonelli. The driver could not speak on the progress his team made, seeing as the conditions were so volatile. Yet, Kimi believes that the Mercedes is doing “pretty well”, despite the difficulties:
“I think today is hard to say. I mean, the conditions were just so tricky, and it was just so difficult. When I went back on Inters after the sleek run, I felt pretty good in the car and was staying with the guys in front. But then, I got hit.
“With the car, to be honest, this weekend, like from Saturday onwards, it felt much better. So I think, you know, the car is doing pretty well so far.”
