Kimi Antonelli set a record as the youngest grand slam winner in Formula 1 history when he dominated the Monaco Grand Prix, and Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies admits that his “serious pace” came as a surprise to many onlookers.
The Mercedes teenager put his Mercedes on pole position in the principality ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. However, the Dutchman spluttered off the line on Sunday with engine issues and retired from the race. From then on, Antonelli faced little challenge up front and romped to his fifth consecutive victory.
“Kimi disappeared,” said Mekies, when asked about the Mercedes driver’s performance. “Credit to Kimi, I think he surprised all of us by being that fast around here on his second year only.
“I think he showed today that what he had done yesterday [in qualifying] was not one magical lap but that he had a very serious pace. Whether or not Max would have been able to challenge that pace, again we will never know.”
Verstappen put up a strong fight in Monaco on Saturday. While Antonelli beat him to pole position by just 0.043s around the street circuit, the four-time world champion had lapped quicker than him in the first two qualifying sessions.
The team “found the optimum” for Verstappen on Saturday, but was unable to transfer that over to Sunday as the engine issue struck before his race had really begun.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Erik Junius
“Certainly, the level at which Max has been running in qualifying, not just one lap, you know Q2, the two attempts of Q3 was very impressive,” Mekies added. “We know that every time you manage to get Max comfortable with the car you get that extra Max effect so I would have liked to see what he would have done in the race.”
Verstappen acknowledged that it had been “a really good weekend up until the race”, but conceded that he had been “disappointed not to be on the podium” come Sunday.
“We just need to make sure that of course we finish the races,” he said. “But we first need to understand what went wrong today.”
In terms of what actually did go wrong, Mekies said the team has identified what the issue was and admitted that it “gave him no chance” to compete for the podium.
“It is an engine issue,” he explained. “Obviously, we can only apologise to Max because the job he had done with the team to get to that level of pace around Monaco was outstanding. Probably early days to discuss what the fix is, but we think we have identified what the issue is.”
Additional reporting by Ben Vinel
We want to hear from you!
Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.
Take our survey
– The Autosport.com Team
Read the full article here