Kimi Antonelli provided further details on the floor damage which he carried on his Mercedes throughout the Chinese GP.

And as he wracked his brain over where he could have picked it up, he recalled driving over Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari debris, the likely cause.

Kimi Antonelli Mercedes floor damage: A Chinese GP gamechanger?

Antonelli was able to cross the line a respectable P8 in only his second grand prix with Mercedes in Shanghai, that becoming a P6 finish when the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified, over an underweight car and excessive plank wear respectively.

George Russell meanwhile made it back-to-back Mercedes podiums with a fresh P3 result.

And it turns out Antonelli was unaware that he contested that whole race with a wounded Mercedes W16, as he revealed that he had hit Leclerc’s discarded Ferrari front wing endplate which made a bid for freedom after Leclerc and Hamilton collided through Turn 2/3 on the opening lap.

“I felt something was weird, and then apparently, the team told me, I had floor damage from lap one,” said Antonelli.

“And now thinking back, I know where I could have got the damage. So when Leclerc lost the wing, I hit it with the floor. I remember going over it.

“But I didn’t really think at the time that there was some damage. But obviously, yeah, I struggled.

“I was really struggling with traction, combined traction was a real struggle. I couldn’t really go on power, I really needed to wait until a certain moment, because the car otherwise was snapping, but you know, it could explain the damage.

“I think without the damage, it could have been a different race.

“But I want to see also some data where I could have done better, to be honest. Because, the pace of the car is there, and I need to, of course, improve and try to put things together in order to achieve a better result.”

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff would reveal just how severe the floor damage was on Antonelli’s W16, while he also responded to the Italian teenager winning Driver of the Day in a surprise fan verdict.

“He got extensive floor damage,” Wolff confirmed. “We don’t know actually why, whether we ran over Charles’s endplate, but we had like massive holes in the floor and titanium streaks that were gone.

“So considering that he had a car that was severely impaired, finishing eighth, holding on to it, not complaining, just getting on with the job, shows the potential and the maturity the young man has.

“And obviously Driver of the Day, so you also see where the fan demographic is. Something important is Formula 1, that we remind ourselves.”

Mercedes sit P2 in the early F1 2025 Constructors’ standings, 21 points behind McLaren.

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