Jacques Villeneuve was blunt in his criticism of 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli after one other pointless race on the Dutch Grand Prix, by which he took out Charles Leclerc with an ill-timed transfer
Jeremy Clarkson has leapt to the defence of Kimi Antonelli after the teen’s wretched Dutch Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver continued his troublesome run with one other pointless end result, that means he has scored only a single level throughout the eight European races held this yr.
After a disappointing qualifying, which noticed him begin the Grand Prix twelfth, the race was going properly for some time and it seemed as if, for the primary time in additional than two months, {the teenager} was on monitor to ship a big factors haul as he made his manner up the order.
However it all unravelled when he tried a transfer on Charles Leclerc which was by no means on. A dive up the within ended with him smacking the rear-left wheel of the Ferrari, sending right into a spin earlier than it hit the barrier, ripping off the nostril of the automobile and placing it out of the race.
Antonelli obtained a 10-second time penalty for inflicting that collision, and had an extra 5 seconds added to his time when caught dashing within the pit lane. He crossed the road sixth on the street, however was relegated to sixteenth within the remaining classification as soon as these penalties have been utilized.
Working as a pundit for Sky Sports activities at Zandvoort, former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve was brutal in his criticism of the under-pressure rookie. “Very poor. A transfer that you just may see in Formulation 4, Formulation 3 from a driver who would not have expertise and simply not calculated the way in which it needs to be,” was his evaluation of Antonelli’s botched Leclerc overtake.
“Once you’re in F1, you’ll make errors. You drive too onerous your restrict. However that was not even that. It was simply badly calculated. He should not have accomplished that, after which he acquired all riled up and [broke the] pace restrict as properly.”
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Villeneuve was requested on air whether or not that was truthful criticism, given Antonelli’s age, however the Canadian doubled down by naming different drivers who hit the bottom operating as rookies regardless of their tender years. He replied: “He is in Formulation 1. What age was Max when he arrived in F1? What age was Lewis when he arrived? Precisely. In order that’s not excuse.”
However lots have disagreed with Villeneuve, together with Jeremy Clarkson who clearly has some sympathy for the Mercedes teen. Posting on social media, the previous presenter of High Gear and The Grand Tour drilled house the purpose: “Antonelli is an adolescent.”
Antonelli was additionally defended by Villeneuve’s on air colleague Naomi Schiff, who mentioned: “I believe, to his defence a little bit bit on the age factor, I believe if we glance again at Max, when he was 16,17, 18, when he got here into F1, what number of massive errors he was making.
“I imply, he was all the time pushing issues a little bit bit over the bounds. And the great factor is, [Antonelli] is pushing issues over the restrict. They don’t seem to be having to get him to there, so now they’ve simply acquired to rein him in, as a result of he is acquired it. He simply must not miscalculate so many issues.”
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