{"id":304698,"date":"2025-07-30T19:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/304698\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T19:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:38:13","slug":"antonelli-told-mercedes-track-was-ready-for-slicks-on-same-lap-as-hamilton-%c2%b7-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/304698\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonelli told Mercedes track was ready for slicks on same lap as Hamilton \u00b7 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a> missed a chance to make the same well-timed pit stop as Lewis Hamilton in the Belgian Grand Prix because Mercedes were unwilling to pit him.<\/p>\n

As the track dried at the start of Sunday\u2019s race, the rookie driver reported on his radio the track was ready for slick tyres on lap 11. However his race engineer Peter Bonnington told him to stay out.<\/p>\n

Four other drivers pitted on the same lap, led in by Hamilton, who gained seven places. Fernando Alonso<\/a>, who ran behind Antonelli until he pitted, also gained seven places thanks to his well-timed tyre change.<\/p>\n

Antonelli came in on the next lap, at the same time as most other drivers, which cost him the chance to jump ahead of them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This was the second race in a row in which Antonelli\u2019s result potentially suffered because Mercedes did not heed his feedback regarding tyres.<\/p>\n

At Silverstone, Antonelli told Mercedes the track conditions were still too wet to consider switching from intermediates to slicks during the race\u2019s first Virtual Safety Car period. \u201cThe last sector is way too wet yet,\u201d he informed Bonnington.<\/p>\n

However the team chose to put him on hard slick tyres which his team mate George Russell<\/a> had already switched to. \u201cGeorge is managing to generate decent temp so we are going to box, end of this lap,\u201d said Bonnington. After the race team principal Toto Wolff admitted they should have left Antonelli on his intermediates.<\/p>\n

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Antonelli\u2019s Spa radio messages<\/p>\n\nLap: 8\/44 ANT: 2\u201904.219<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAntonelli<\/td>\nI have a lot of oversteer.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nWe have a B-mig one available. And use reg magic for the last corner.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nSo just keep tyre temps under control as best you can.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 9\/44 ANT: 2\u201905.404<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nYou have diff mid eight available except for the first and last corners.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nStill looking for water.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 10\/44 ANT: 2\u201905.624<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAntonelli<\/td>\nExit of Stavelot
[Unclear] for dry.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nOkay, copy. Transmission is poor around turn 15. Let us know what you think to the track conditions. And just open up your tools as that front drops off.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 11\/44 ANT: 2\u201905.433<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAntonelli<\/td>\nExit of Stavelot
I think it\u2019s ready.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nOkay, copy. We\u2019ll let you know. Just come down with your tools. We\u2019ll stay out.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nSo we\u2019ve got Lewis in. We will learn from him. Kimi, can we go HPP seven position five.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 12\/44 ANT: 2\u201908.264<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAntonelli<\/td>\nAt Stavelot
Bono [unclear]\u2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nAffirm Kimi so box, box.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 13\/44 ANT: 2\u201910.637<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nHe pits
Go menu wet position one. So Eau Rouge is the wettest. Eau Rouge is the wettest point. Other than that, the rest looks good.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nAnd we\u2019ll go diff init four when you can, diff in at four.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nWatch for cars on pit exit. Think about removing diff magic last corner and reg magic in turn one.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 14\/44 ANT: 1\u201950.310<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nKimi we will go menu wet position one, menu wet position one.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAntonelli<\/td>\nRepeat.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nMenu wet, position one. Menu wet position one.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLap: 16\/44 ANT: 1\u201949.928<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBonnington<\/td>\nHadjar ahead was 50.0 and we need to do the menu wet switch change, menu wet switch change. That\u2019s the position one.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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2025 Belgian Grand Prix
\nBrowse all 2025 Belgian Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrea Kimi Antonelli missed a chance to make the same well-timed pit stop as Lewis Hamilton in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[107777,13328,4199,707,4200,4859,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-304698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-2025-belgian-grand-prix","9":"tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-mercedes","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}