Increasingly a leader
Kimi Antonelli leaves Zandvoort increasingly at the top of the World Championship. His lead in the standings is now 59 points over the Hamilton-Russell pair; a gap that is obviously not yet enough to claim victory with 11 GPs to go but confirms the Italian’s ability to maximize the W17’s performance every weekend. After winning five GPs in a row, however, Antonelli has won only one of the last six races. An interesting fact that, combined with the evident performance growth of McLaren, led the young Bolognese talent to say that Mercedes is no longer the performance benchmark on the grid.
The technical benchmark changes
“We are definitely no longer the fastest car on the starting grid – Antonelli stated, speaking at the press conference after securing second place at Zandvoort – probably we are second or third, at least in this race, and McLaren has made a huge leap forward, especially after Hungary, since they introduced that big update package”. The topic of updates is thorny for Mercedes, as team principal Toto Wolff himself made clear, highlighting the problems related to the budget cap that the Brackley team has. However, Antonelli expects a reaction from his team.
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“I have confidence in the team – Antonelli added – the team is working very hard on the next package that is about to arrive and just wants to make sure it works well once installed. So, it will definitely be harder, it will be challenging, but we are ready to give our best and make the most of every opportunity. And then, we hope it will be our turn to bring the package that will give us some advantage again“. In McLaren and Ferrari they are already crossing their fingers.
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