‘Lesson learned’ says Antonelli after 52g crash sees him end maiden Mercedes FP1 in the Monza barriers

Mercedes’ protege Kimi Antonelli was left to reflect on an unfortunate maiden Free Practice 1 outing with the Silver Arrows at the Italian Grand Prix, after putting his borrowed car into the Monza wall just minutes into his debut.

F2 racer Antonelli – believed to be in contention to replace Lewis Hamilton at the team for 2025 – had completed just 10 minutes of running in FP1 when he lost control of the W15 heading into the Parabolica corner.

READ MORE: Wolff reveals what he said to Antonelli after ‘unfortunate’ FP1 crash as he insists incident has ‘zero effect’ on 2025 driver call

The 18-year-old Italian rotated the car into the wall, damaging a new floor that Mercedes had been looking to test, and eating into George Russell’s FP2 time as mechanics raced to get the car repaired.

“First FP1 done,” said Antonelli in a recorded video message, the Italian having missed his Friday evening media duties due to feeling unwell. “Unfortunately it ended quite quickly because of the crash.

“It was quite a big one, around 52g,” he added. “Really sorry to the team and George for making them work afterwards. Just a mistake by my side, just pushing a bit too much for the conditions and I should have built the run a bit more progressively.

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“But definitely a lesson learned for next time. But I'm still really thankful to the team for making this possible, and still great to see all the tifosi out there, and to get the first laps with all the drivers on track.

“I'm not feeling super well at the moment, I'm just going to go back and try to rest and try to focus for the rest of the weekend, because there's still some races to go [in Formula 2] and we're going to still try and get a good result.”

Speaking earlier in the day, meanwhile, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff told the media that the crash wouldn’t affect Antonelli’s standing within the team, as they hunt for a replacement for Ferrari-bound seven-time champion Hamilton.

“He’s a rookie, he’s very young, we are prepared to invest into his future,” said Wolff. “I think a strong driver needs to recover from these things and cope with the pressure.

WATCH: The story of Antonelli's first FP1

“You have all these shenanigans around you in Monza: Italian kid that’s been hired, first time in a Mercedes, and that must be a heavy burden. But if he wants to be a champion one day he needs to cope with that, and I have no doubt that he can and he will.

“[The crash has] zero effect [on our opinion of him],” added Wolff. “Most important is to hire based on ability, and an FP1 that’s gone wrong is not the reason why you decide for or against a driver.”