The youngest driver on the grid at the Australian Grand Prix faced high expectations as well as difficult conditions on his debut.
Mercedes had nurtured Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s career for years. But while his team mate George Russell got to make his Formula 1 debut in the relatively low-pressure environment of Williams, Antonelli was thrust straight into the top team, in the seat previously occupied by no less a talent than Lewis Hamilton.
Thrust into the spotlight, Antonelli stumbled in qualifying, damaging his career and dropping out in Q1. That left him near the back of the grid.
The foul conditions which greeted the teams on Sunday, after 48 hours of fine weather, were hardly ideal for Antonelli or any of the other rookies. However he had the benefit of a long testing programme in Mercedes’ F1 cars, some of which took place in similarly wet conditions.
Antonelli was well prepared, and though his race wasn’t flawless, he produced a superb drive to finish fourth. Here’s how he did it.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Australian Grand Prix radio transcript
Jump to:
“Right-hand side?”
“I had a moment”
“Hulkenberg is doing burn-outs into the pit lane”
“I like that”
“That was a wheel on the grass”
“Has DRS been disabled?”
“Alonso crashed”
“Do you think we can have HPP 12?”
“Take it easy in this restart”
“Mate, he’s defending!”
“I didn’t press it”
“Nice job”
“You are the only rookie that kept it on the road”
“Right-hand side?”
Antonelli lined up 16th on the grid, having been eliminated from qualifying the day before. The original attempt to start the race was abandoned after Isack Hadjar crashed.
Ahead of the second attempt to start the race, Bonnington reminded Antonelli there would be some empty spots on the grid, and to be sure to line up in the correct one. Antonelli spotted his mistake in identifying which side of the grid he should start from.
| Lap: 1/57 ANT: 2’22.352 |
| Bonnington | Initial clutch target drop was on target, then fed in deep. Okay Kimi, so we’re going to cool the call car turn 11, so coasting turn 11. |
| Bonnington | And it’ll be three burn-outs, three burn-outs. There’s a couple of cars missing from the grid, just look for your name, left-hand side. |
| Antonelli | Right-hand side? |
| Bonnington | Sorry, the board is on the left-hand side. The board is on the left-hand side. You should be on the right. |
| Bonnington | So set your b-bal, b-mig [brake balance, brake migration] and then strat mode five, last car in place. |
“I had a moment”
When the race finally started, Jack Doohan lost control of his car at the exit of turn five and crashed out. Antonelli came very close to making the same error, catching a huge slide as he accelerated out of the corner.
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| Bonnington | So we have Safety Car, Safety Car, keep the delta positive. So we are staying out, brake magic on, delta. Strat mode one. |
| Antonelli | Antonelli catches a huge snap of oversteer at the exit of turn five
Fuck, I had a moment. |
| Bonnington | Okay, copy. Doohan crashed between five and six. Just stay on top of the temps. |
| Lap: 2/57 ANT: 2’49.800 |
| Bonnington | Just 10 car lengths once we’re into the pack. Safety Car is at turn five at the moment. Doohan crashed on the left-hand side so the debris expected to be on left-hand side. Sainz has just gone off, final corner. |
| Antonelli | Yeah, copy, saw that. |
| Bonnington | Okay, so the Safety Car will be coming through the pit lane, so we’ll follow that. Just remember when you’re coming through the pit lane, you’re staying in the fast lane and using the pit limiter. So just stay on top of those temps as best you can, but just be careful. We’ve had a couple of cars off already. Sainz [was] just trying to get temp. So you’ll be coming through the pit lane and reminder for pit limiter. |
| Antonelli | Copy that. |
| Bonnington | Staying in the fast lane, driving through. Just watch the white line on exit. Still recovering Doohan’s car. |
| Lap: 3/57 ANT: 2’44.755 |
| Bonnington | We’ll be through the pit lane again. So through the pit lane, and remember pit limiter again. From the replays looks like Doohan lost it on straight just by putting a wheel on the white lines. Just watch painted lines |
| Antonelli | Yeah, I almost did the same, so yeah, they’re quite slippery. |
| Bonnington | Okay, good man. |
“Hulkenberg is doing burn-outs into the pit lane”
Although Antonelli was now up to 13th he had lost a position to Nico Hulkenberg. He suspected the Sauber driver had broken a rule in the pit lane, and advised his team, but his rival was not investigated.
| Lap: 4/57 ANT: 2’34.598 |
| Antonelli | Uh, Hulkenberg is doing burn-outs into the pit lane. |
| Bonnington | Okay, copy. So recovery vehicle on track, recovery vehicle. So a bit more brake magic if we can have it. Just try and get that temp. |
| Antonelli | How can I help rears? |
| Bonnington | Yeah, we’ve got that turned up already, so the rest is in your control. So through the pit lane again, and again, pit limiter. |
| Antonelli | If it doesn’t rain again, it’s going to be drying. |
| Bonnington | Okay, copy. No rain on the forecast for the next 20, 30 minutes. Again, white line on exit. |
| Lap: 5/57 ANT: 2’19.163 |
| Bonnington | Recovery vehicle, looks like it’s still on track. |
| Bonnington | So this time the Safety Car will use the start-finish straight. So we’ll stay out. |
| Bonnington | So staying out, staying out. So that recovery vehicle that should have moved, it’s just parking up now I think, it’s around turn eight, nine. So, recovery vehicle, you’re about to go past. Kimi, can we have HPP three position three, three position three. So the Safety Car is going to be in end of this lap. Temps have been building slowly now. |
| Lap: 7/57 ANT: 2’03.412 |
| Bonnington | So for the restart, it will be strat mode five, I’ll let you know. So let’s go strat mode five now. Strat mode five. Just make sure you’ve got your B-bal set.
The race restarts |
| Bonnington | Ignore the oxidation warnings, ignore oxidation warnings. And can we have HPP 12 position two, 12 position two. |
| Lap: 9/57 ANT: 1’36.312 |
| Bonnington | HPP 12 position one, 12 position one. |
“I like that”
Antonelli made some progress once the race restarted, passing Hulkenberg.
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| Lap: 10/57 ANT: 1’35.270 |
| Bonnington | And cool the left-hand side tyres where you can. |
| Lap: 11/57 ANT: 1’34.678 |
| Antonelli | I start to feel the overheating. |
| Lap: 12/57 ANT: 1’35.385 |
| Bonnington | So just look for water where you can. DRS has been enabled. |
| Bonnington | Kimi can we have chassis default 19, chassis one-nine. |
| Lap: 14/57 ANT: 1’33.802 |
| Bonnington | Just look for the wet patches where you can. |
| Bonnington | Antonelli passes Hulkenberg into turn 11
Nice work, Kimi, I like that! Okay, Hulkerberg 0.9 behind, got Stroll three ahead. There may be light rain now. Stroll ahead was a 33.1, front-runners were doing 30.8. |
“That was a wheel on the grass”
However soon afterwards he spun off at turn four and fell back behind Hulkenberg. Bonnington made sure he understood his error.
| Lap: 15/57 ANT: 1’32.212 |
| Bonnington | Suggest coming up on diff mid, one or two steps. Still find the water, look for the water.
Antonelli spins at turn four, gets going again but loses a place to Hulkenberg. |
| Lap: 16/57 ANT: 1’37.326 |
| Bonnington | So Bortoleto 0.9 behind. |
| Bonnington | So Kimi that was a wheel on the grass, so just be careful. |
| Lap: 17/57 ANT: 1’32.312 |
| Bonnington | So we have a Stroll ahead at six-and-a-half seconds. Last lap was a 33.8. |
| Lap: 18/57 ANT: 1’32.181 |
| Bonnington | The rain is picking up. And we go strat mode seven, strat mode. |
| Lap: 20/57 ANT: 1’31.319 |
| Bonnington | So this rain will persist for another eight to ten minutes. |
| Antonelli | How is the pace? |
| Bonnington | Front runners are mid-30, George doing 32.2. So Stroll ahead at 2.8, last lap at 32.6. |
| Lap: 21/57 ANT: 1’31.042 |
| Bonnington | Okay Kimi, we saw diff high-speed change, diff mid would also be effective plus two, diff mid plus two. |
“Has DRS been disabled?”
Antonelli regained his position from Hulkenberg and passed Lance Stroll as well, leaving him one place outside the points. Next he applied pressure to the other Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, spending several laps within DRS range, then slipping back slightly.
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| Lap: 22/57 ANT: 1’31.887 |
| Bonnington | Antonelli passes Stroll at turn 11
Strat mode six, nice work mate. We’ve got Alonso four-and-a-half seconds ahead. |
| Lap: 23/57 ANT: 1’31.324 |
| Bonnington | And Kimi can we have HPP three position two, three position two. |
| Lap: 24/57 ANT: 1’30.822 |
| Bonnington | Alonso at 32.5, gap at 3.4. |
| Lap: 26/57 ANT: 1’31.299 |
| Bonnington | So Alonso ahead, 31.7. |
| Lap: 27/57 ANT: 1’30.463 |
| Antonelli | Has DRS been disabled? |
| Bonnington | Negative, that gap is at 1.1. |
| Bonnington | And think about magic for turn 13 understeer. |
| Lap: 30/57 ANT: 1’29.794 |
| Antonelli | I’m struggling with overheating. |
| Bonnington | Okay, copy Kimi. Just think about pulling back the entry, focus on the exit. |
| Bonnington | And just think about cooling the tyres where you can, driving offline. I’m sure you’re doing as much as you can. You can think about just pushing a b-bal forwards a little, just to help the rears. |
“Alonso crashed”
Alonso pulled two seconds clear of Antonelli, then crashed heavily at the exit of turn six. This triggered a Safety Car deployment which Mercedes, like their rivals, reacted to immediately by bringing their driver in for slick tyres.
| Lap: 32/57 ANT: 1’29.032 |
| Bonnington | Just start opening up your diff with the understeer. |
| Bonnington | And Kimi, how far from slicks do you think it is? |
| Lap: 33/57 ANT: 1’52.635 |
| Antonelli | Still a bit far. |
| Bonnington | Copy that, Kimi. |
| Antonelli | Alonso spins into a barrier in front of Antonelli
Alonso crashed. |
| Bonnington | Copy, copy. You are in your Safety Car window for slick tyres. |
| Antonelli | What the others are doing? |
| Bonnington | We don’t know yet. So Safety Car, Safety Car. Keep the delta positive. So strat mode one and box, box. So we are going to go to slicks. Thanks for pit confirm. |
| Bonnington | Antonelli leaves his pit box. The stewards originally deemed Mercedes released him unsafely in front of Hulkenberg and gave him a five-second time penalty, but cancelled their decision after the race
Menu wet position one, so menu wet position one. And you’re pushing down to Safety Car [line] two. So just be careful with these tyres, we’re just going to need to build some temp. |
“Do you think we can have HPP 12?”
In his first race, Antonelli appeared confident enough with Mercedes’ systems to suggest switch changes before Bonnington advised him to make them.
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| Lap: 34/57 ANT: 2’22.596 |
| Antonelli | Do you think we can have HPP 12? |
| Bonnington | I was about to say, if you go HPP 12, position four. Use your brake magic so you’ve got that on. |
| Bonnington | Can we have HPP seven position three, seven position three. |
| Bonnington | The Safety Car did not pick up the leader when it joined the track. Antonelli and other drivers were waved past it after they passed the crash scene
Okay Kimi you’re currently sitting in P10. So just being waved through. |
| Lap: 35/57 ANT: 1’44.670 |
| Bonnington | He approaches the crash scene
So Alonso still parked there. |
| Lap: 36/57 ANT: 1’41.655 |
| Antonelli | Do you think I can switch the HPP 12 off, or still keep it on? |
| Bonnington | So down to two. Okay Kimi we have marshals on track turn six, seven sorting the gravel and then a recovery vehicle at turn eight. So look for marshals and recovery vehicle. So the Safety Car is between turns 10 and 11. |
| Lap: 37/57 ANT: 2’07.298 |
| Bonnington | So you’re joining the pack now. So maybe we think about coming back up on HPP 12, position four. |
| Antonelli | Uh, you want me to switch that off? |
| Bonnington | Yeah you go 12 position four. And there is a possibility of rain later in the race. |
| Lap: 38/57 ANT: 2’19.681 |
| Bonnington | Double yellow. |
| Lap: 39/57 ANT: 2’11.642 |
| Bonnington | And maybe some light rain in the last sector, so 11 to 13. |
“Take it easy in this restart”
As drivers prepared for the restart on slick tyres, Bonnington reminded Antonelli not to repeat his earlier error. Shortly afterwards the rain returned, Antonelli passed Leclerc’s spun Ferrari and immediately headed back into the pits for intermediates.
| Lap: 40/57 ANT: 2’09.615 |
| Bonnington | Kimi, just take it easy in this restart, just using all the track, there’s still quite a lot of water out there, so it’s a tight line. |
| Antonelli | Yeah, copy that. |
| Lap: 41/57 ANT: 2’06.220 |
| Bonnington | So Safety Car’s going to be in this lap. |
| Antonelli | Copy. |
| Bonnington | So you can go back on HPP 12. So HPP 12 position one. So it’ll be strat mode five, strat mode five. Safety Car at turn 12. |
| Lap: 42/57 ANT: 1’27.505 |
| Bonnington | The race restarts
It feels like the wind is picking up. And light rain in two to three minutes. |
| Bonnington | DRS has been enabled. That rain is going to hit us soon. The rain could get pretty intense. |
| Lap: 44/57 ANT: 1’48.276 |
| Bonnington | And expecting that rain to increase, so let us know what you see. |
| Bonnington | Box, box. Box, box. Box, box. Box, box. And then wet position three, wet position three.>Russell ahead and Stroll behind also pit. Antonelli is briefly delayed behind his team mate which allows Stroll to get back in front of him through the pits |
| Lap: 45/57 ANT: 1’35.593 |
| Bonnington | This rain is going to build for two to three minutes. |
“Mate, he’s defending!”
Antonelli repassed Stroll, then caught Oliver Bearman, now driving for Haas, who was a lap down. To Antonelli’s frustration Bearman moved towards the inside line as he gained on him approaching turn three.
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| Lap: 46/57 ANT: 1’30.780 |
| Bonnington | Antonelli passes Stroll on the outside approaching turn nine
Nice work, mate. This last sector looks wet. Bearman ahead is traffic, so he has blue flags. Look for the water as much as you can. Bearman has blue flags. |
| Lap: 47/57 ANT: 2’05.750 |
| Antonelli | Mate, he’s defending! |
| Antonelli | So Safety Car, Safety Car, no overtaking. So keep delta positive. |
| Antonelli | Mate, they’re defending on me, I don’t know? |
| Bonnington | Yeah, just stay in position now, but yeah, we’re on to them. We’ve also got Lawson off. So Bortoleto off at turn 13, Lawson off turn two. And we’ve got HPP 12 position four, 12 position four. We’ll go strat mode one. |
| Lap: 48/57 ANT: 1’58.429 |
| Bonnington | Kimi, no more rain expected. |
| Bonnington | So Safety Car between turns 10 and 11. |
| Lap: 49/57 ANT: 2’24.964 |
| Bonnington | Just make those temps as best you can, mate. So lapped cars may now overtake, so that’s going to mean Bearman gets out of our way. |
“I didn’t press it”
There was some brief confusion when Bonnington saw a ‘pit confirm’ signal from Antonelli’s car when he was not supposed to come in.
| Lap: 50/57 ANT: 2’20.284 |
| Bonnington | Bonnington gets the ‘pit confirm’ signal from Antonelli’s car
I’m not sure that was a deliberate pit confirm there. |
| Antonelli | Well, I didn’t press it. |
| Bonnington | Okay, don’t worry about it |
| Antonelli | How can I reset it? |
| Bonnington | It will reset over the line, don’t worry. Okay Kimi so a car ahead, Albon. And you’ve got Stroll, Hulkenberg, Gasly, cars behind everyone on the inter. So not expecting any more rain. |
| Lap: 51/57 ANT: 2’12.971 |
| Bonnington | So the Safety Car will be in this lap. |
| Antonelli | Copy. |
| Bonnington | So HPP 12, position one. |
| Antonelli | You sure? |
| Bonnington | You can keep it if you think you need it. Yeah, set it to two, that’ll be fine. So there’ll be six laps remaining when you cross the line. |
| Bonnington | So strat mode five, strat mode five and focus on this restart. |
| Bonnington | So gap 1.0 ahead, 2.1 behind. |
| Lap: 52/57 ANT: 1’35.008 |
| Bonnington | And wind is getting gusty. |
| Bonnington | And it’ll be four laps remaining. |
“Nice job”
By pitting for intermediates before others, Antonelli moved up to fifth place. After the final restart he gained another position by passing Alexander Albon.
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| Lap: 54/57 ANT: 1’30.562 |
| Bonnington | Antonelli closes on Albon
DRS has been enabled, gap ahead 0.5. |
| Lap: 55/57 ANT: 1’30.602 |
| Bonnington | And you do have overtake available. |
| Lap: 56/57 ANT: 1’28.149 |
| Bonnington | You’ve got two laps remaining. |
| Bonnington | Kimi just remember to pull back the entry for better exits. |
| Bonnington | Antonelli passes Albon on the outside heading into turn nine
Yes, mate. Nice job. |
| Bonnington | One more lap. |
| Lap: 57/57 ANT: 1’28.650 |
| Bonnington | Use overtake on this straight, we’ll keep pushing. |
| Bonnington | Keep pushing to the line, mate. |
“You are the only rookie that kept it on the road”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff came on Antonelli’s radio at the end of the race to congratulate him on a successful debut.
Several laps earlier the stewards had issued a five-second time penalty to Antonelli. Mercedes did not distract him with the information during the race and waited until afterwards to let him know.
However after the race finished Mercedes successfully petitioned the stewards to cancel Antonelli’s penalty. He was therefore restored to a superb fourth place on his debut.
| Chequered flag |
| Bonnington | Nice work, Kimi. That was a great drive. That’s P4 on the road. Unfortunately they’ve given us a five-second penalty so it’s bumped us to P5. Five-second penalty was an unsafe release but you did a great job today. |
| Antonelli | Oh man, fuck, that was close. Woah, what a race! |
| Bonnington | Yeah, mega, mega job today, mate. Not bad for your first go. And yeah, some of those overtakes were pretty sweet. Can you go strat mode 14 and then HPP one, position 12. And we’ll go strat mode one, strat mode one. |
| Wolff | Kimi first one. Really really good. Really really good, what a result. You are the only rookie that kept it on the road and we ended up with a P5, that’s mega. |
| Bonnington | Thank you Toto, thanks everyone, it was a good weekend, thank you everyone. |
| Bonnington | Yeah it’s a good first crack, mate. Into the pit lane and then just pull up where they direct you to. Top three cars will go down the end. And then when you get out of the car, switch the engine off and then switch P1 off as well. We’ll see you in a bit. |
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