Mercedes plan second FP1 for Kimi Antonelli | “Will chat to him” to avoid Monza repeat
"The pace was certainly good, we’ll chat to him about building up a bit more gently in future and how you approach the race weekend..."
Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be handed a second FP1 outing later in the season, Mercedes have confirmed.
Antonelli was in action for Mercedes in FP1 at Italian Grand Prix, but his first official F1 outing ended abruptly with a crash at Parabolica in the early stages of first practice.
It didn’t put too much of a dampener on the weekend though as 24 hours later Antonelli was announced as a full-time Mercedes driver alongside George Russell in 2025.
The Italian will be just 18 when he makes his full F1 debut at the Australian Grand Prix next year.
Unsurprisingly, Antonelli will get another shot in the Mercedes later this year, stepping in for Lewis Hamilton at some point.
Andrew Shovlin confirmed Antonelli will likely feature during a weekend where a sprint race isn’t taking place.
That leaves Singapore, Mexico, Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi.
Singapore and Las Vegas are less likely due to being a street circuit, leaving Mexico or Abu Dhabi the likelist options.
Speaking on the Mercedes YouTube channel, Shovlin - who is the team’s trackside engineering chief - said: “Yes there will be, because the regulations require that both of our race drivers give up their seat for a Friday practice session. Kimi being our driver for next year of course we’re going to use him.
“He obviously didn’t get as much mileage as we’d hoped for, we have been doing and we are doing work with some of our previous cars, giving Kimi the opportunity to experience the car, the tyres over a range of circuits, that’s going to continue. A bit of a shame that he had that accident at Parabolica.
“The pace was certainly good, we’ll chat to him about building up a bit more gently in future and how you approach the race weekend, but yes we’re looking forward to getting him in the car again, we’ll pick the right circuit for that.
“We’ve got a lot of sprint races coming up so you’re not going to want to have a race driver missing their only free practice session at a sprint race, so limited choice, but yes he will be back in and we’re looking forward to getting him back in the car.”
