Kimi Antonelli complained about 228-race F1 rival during unheard Mercedes radio message

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was the youngest driver on the Australian Grand Prix grid and he delivered on expectations at Mercedes.

The 18-year-old suffered a setback in qualifying when he damaged his floor running over the gravel at Turn 6, causing him to drop out of Q1 and start from P16 on the grid.

Mercedes thrust Antonelli into the spotlight when they announced he would be replacing Lewis Hamilton the same weekend he made his F1 practice debut, which lasted all of 10 minutes before he crashed at high speed at the Parabolica.

Now he was making his full race debut in the rain on a part street circuit renowned for being unforgiving in the wet due to the painted road markings, which caught out their fair share of rookies.

Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson, and Isack Hadjar all fell foul of the painted sections while Antonelli produced an impressive save that went unseen on the TV feed. It was an assured debut by the Italian, one that was backed up by his radio messages to his Mercedes engineer Peter Bonnington.

Kimi Antonelli corrects Mercedes engineer Peter Bonnington

Antonelli started from P16 on the grid and with the original start being aborted, he was told by Bonnington that there might be some gaps on the grid where cars were out.

When Bonnington made a mistake by telling him which side this might be on, Antonelli was quick to correct his experienced engineer when identifying which side of the grid he should take up his position.

Engineer	Driver
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 brake balance and brake migration, and then strat mode five, last car in place.”

Kimi Antonelli complains about Nico Hulkenberg and Oliver Bearman breaking rules

After Doohan and Carlos Sainz both crashed on the opening lap, all of the cars were told to pass through the pit lane during the Safety Car period while debris was cleaned at Turn 14.

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Drivers are not allowed to perform burnouts in the pit lane under any circumstances, but Antonelli spotted Nico Hulkenberg, who was starting his 228-race in F1 at Sauber, potentially contravening the rules.

Engineer	Driver
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.”

Antonelli would later encounter his old Prema teammate Oliver Bearman as a back marker on Lap 47, and complained to Bonnington that he was defending instead of adhering to blue flags.

Engineer	Driver
Antonelli: “Mate, he’s defending!”
Bonnington: “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.”
Bonnington: “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.”

READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats

Toto Wolff praises Kimi Antonelli after ‘mega’ Australian GP

Antonelli found himself behind Alex Albon on the penultimate lap, going on to pull off an impressive overtake around the outside of Turn 9 on the Williams driver for fourth.

Engineer	Driver
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, f—, 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.”
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.”
Antonelli: “Thank you Toto, thanks everyone, it was a good weekend, thank you everyone.”