Kimi Antonelli’s first words after huge ’52G’ Monza crash on Mercedes F1 debut

Kimi Antonelli admitted that he was “not feeling super well” after crashing out on his Mercedes F1 debut at Monza, in a shunt which came in north of 50G.

18-year-old Antonelli has emerged as the leading candidate to take Lewis Hamilton’s spot at Mercedes in F1 2025 as he heads for Ferrari, and made his debut with Mercedes in FP1 at Monza, his home race. However, it definitely did not go to plan for Antonelli.

Kimi Antonelli ‘not feeling super well’ after major Monza crash

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

Antonelli wasted no time in going to the top of the timings but just 11 minutes into the session, found himself spinning off into the wall at Parabolica.

The teenager thankfully was not injured in the shunt, though the Mercedes W15 required major work for George Russell to be able to take part in FP2.

Antonelli revealed that his crash measured at “around 52Gs” as he admitted that he “should have built the run more progressively”, and apologised for the repair job he left the team with.

“Yeah, what a day,” he said.

“First FP1 done. Unfortunately, it ended quite quickly because of the crash. Was quite a big one, around 52Gs, and yeah, really sorry to the team and George for making them work afterwards.

“And yeah, just a mistake by my side, just pushing a bit too much for the conditions. Should have built the run a bit more progressively. But definitely lesson learned for next time.

“But yeah, still really thankful to the team for making this possible, and still great to see all the tifosi out there and to get the first laps with all the drivers on track.

“Yeah, so not feeling super well at the moment, just going to go back and try to rest and try to focus for the rest of the weekend, because still, there’s still some racing to go, and we’re going to still try to get a good result.”

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Antonelli quickly shifted his focus back to Formula 2, claiming P6 on the Feature Race grid.

And after that FP1 disappointment, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said their protégé “needs to cope with the pressure”.

“I think a strong driver needs to recover from these things and cope with the pressure,” Wolff told media including PlanetF1.com.

“Obviously this weekend wasn’t easy for him because he still needs to compete in F2, you have all these shenanigans around you in Monza, Italian kid that’s being hyped for the first time in a Mercedes.

“That must be a heavy burden, but if he wants to be a champion one day he needs to cope with it.

“I have no doubt that he can and he will.”

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