Antonelli reveals technical issues in Jeddah race
Having grabbed a sixth-place finish in Jeddah, Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli insisted that tyre overheating has massively affected his car's performance at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
George Russell started from third on the grid after his brilliant last push lap in qualifying. While he looked comfortable on the medium tyres during the opening stint, he soon after started to suffer from higher levels of degradation.
The Briton elected to pit early, and while Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris rejoined the track behind Russell after their own pit stop, the Mercedes man lost out to both the Ferrari and McLaren driver to finish fifth in Jeddah.
His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli started from P5 on the grid, and looked strong in the early stages of the race. However, his pace faded as the race progressed, and he even clipped the wall at one point.
Although Ferrari’s seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton looked much stronger during the second stint, the Bologna-born managed to extract enough from his W16 to dissuade the Briton from chasing too hard behind.
Reflecting on his race in Jeddah, the Bologna-born driver stated that while he felt comfortable in his W16 during certain points of the 50-lap race in Jeddah, tyre overheating massively affected his race.
"It was a tough race but overall, I’m satisfied to come home P6. I struggled with understeer on the Medium tyre in the first stint. The front tyres started to degrade early on, so our pace wasn’t strong in the early stages.
"I felt better on the Hard compound after our pit stop though and our speed in the final 10 laps was competitive. I still had to manage though as we were suffering from overheating on the tyres throughout the race.
"Today’s race was still good learning for me. It has been an intense triple-header; there’s lots for me to look at and work on, but I’m also looking forward to some recovery time and to coming back stronger in Miami. We will keep pushing as a team to improve and build on our start to the season."
