Mercedes reveals brake duct failure behind Antonelli’s British GP collapse

Mercedes identifies Antonelli failure

Mercedes has confirmed that a front brake duct failure caused the late-race problem that destroyed Kimi Antonelli’s hopes of victory at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix.

Mercedes brought him in for new tyres and a new front wing in an attempt to manage the problem, before race engineer Pete Bonnington told him the wheel shield had failed and requested that he box to retire the car. Antonelli chose to continue, but the car’s performance deteriorated sharply and he slid down the top 10.

Resta explains Mercedes problem

Mercedes Deputy Technical Director Simone Resta has now clarified the source of the failure, identifying the wheel shield as part of the front brake duct assembly.

“A lot of you are asking for information about what happened to Kimi’s car in the race,” Resta said in a Mercedes video. “It was simply a front brake duct failure of a part of the brake duct that is called the wheel shield. And essentially, 10 laps to the end, we had a failure, and the component got loose and started to interact quite a lot with the suspension behaviour and the steering of the car.”

That explanation underlines why Antonelli’s race became so difficult to manage. The issue was not merely costing lap time; it was affecting how the car behaved through the steering and suspension, leaving the rookie fighting a compromised machine in the closing stages.

Antonelli praised for resilience

Resta said the car became “very, very lazy and almost undriveable”, but praised Antonelli’s determination to keep pushing in search of points.

“Kimi was really, really resilient. He wanted to keep the car on track and give himself the best chance to score points,” Resta added. “Now, the car, as I said, was very undriveable, and that’s why Kimi went off track a few times. Unfortunately, that cost him a five-second penalty at the end of the race.”

The penalty for track limits ultimately removed any remaining chance of a reward, leaving Antonelli 15th after a race that had promised far more. Mercedes will now focus on understanding the root cause of the brake duct failure, with Resta still describing the drive as another strong sign of performance and resilience from its young driver.