Mercedes won’t attempt to overturn Kimi Antonelli’s track limits penalty that cost him two points in Formula 1’s British Grand Prix.
Antonelli was fighting for victory at Silverstone when an issue with the wheel shield on his W17 left him struggling to turn the car.
Despite some calls to retire from his team, Antonelli persevered and, via a pitstop whereby his Mercedes mechanics removed the stricken wheel shield, Antonelli was still running in the points when a late safety car emerged for Max Verstappen’s stricken Red Bull.
That safety car remained until the end of the race, so Antonelli crossed the line in ninth place but had picked up a five-second time penalty for track limits abuse caused by going off track due to the wheel issue.
He was found to have left the track at the Turn 6 [Brooklands] left-hander “without a justifiable reason” by the stewards.
Their report read: “The stewards accepted that [Antonelli] was experiencing a mechanical issue.
“However, that did not amount to a justifiable reason for leaving the track.
“In accordance with the penalty guidelines, the standard penalty for a fourth track limits infringement during the race is a five-second time penalty. The stewards therefore imposed the standard penalty.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff did suggest after the race that “we're definitely looking at the situation, whether we can avoid that penalty for track limits”.
But that was part of Mercedes' regular post-race checks, and it found nothing untoward with the penalty, so it won't challenge it.
It elected not to take any action, such as pursuing the right of review route that Alpine used to great success to regain Pierre Gasly’s Monaco podium (something McLaren and Red Bull are now taking action to overturn).
Mercedes would have needed to submit new, significant and relevant evidence and do so within 96 hours of the end of the race.
Asked if there should be more leniency for track limits offences while the car is damaged, Wolff said: “I think for the FIA, it's always difficult to judge ‘is the car so damaged that it should actually come in?’.
“In that case, I think the car was fine. It was just this one feature that was really difficult to turn."
Antonelli said: “These are the rules, so I cannot do anything about it, but of course, I was trying my best to stay on track…to get a penalty for that, it hurts, but these are the rules, and nothing I can do about it.”
Antonelli’s issue
Mercedes isn’t yet sure of the exact cause of the wheel shield issue and will need to return the wounded W17 to its Brackley base.
“It looks like it's a brake duct…caketin…wheel shield, but something got stuck in there, that’s why it wasn't able to turn,” Wolff said.
“Now I've seen the car, it's not yet clear really what...We're going to take the whole car back to the factory in order to take it apart there to really see where it happened, how it happened, and why we had [such] severe consequences of him not being able to turn.”
Wolff says Mercedes has had “too many DNFs” and that reliability is the “predominant issue” of the 2026 car.
from The Race https://ift.tt/srA5WXm
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