Mercedes admit rookie Antonelli paying price for "wrong steps"

18-year-old Antonelli finished third in Canada in June for his first F1 podium but has since failed to score. He has had two retirements since Montreal as well as P17 in a sprint race in Belgium last Saturday and then P16 in Sunday's main grand prix.

The Italian, who took a sprint pole in Miami and is the sport's youngest ever race leader, has retired four times in the last seven rounds and admitted in Belgium he was lacking confidence in the car and not driving as he would like.

"I think he's, like the rest of us, massively fed up with a string of results that are well below what we were collectively achieving earlier in the year," Allison said in a Belgian race debrief on Tuesday.

"I hope he takes some solace from the fact that we tell him, and it's demonstrably a fact, that we have taken the wrong steps with the car, making our team less competitive, and that he is paying the price for that, as is George."

"If the car isn't where it needs to be, then it will be a struggle getting through the qualifying stages in your rookie season in F1," explained Allison, who added that it was "utterly clear" to everyone that the car needed to be better and Antonelli's fortunes would improve when it was.

"Hopefully, he's listening to us as we say those reassuring words because we absolutely know that he is putting in the effort on his side of that bargain," Allison said.

Mercedes are third overall in the 2025 F1 Constructors' Championship, 28 points behind second-placed Ferrari, with one win by Russell in Canada. Russell has been on the podium five times and is fourth overall with 157 points to Antonelli's 63.

Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, whose seat Antonelli took when the Briton moved to Ferrari, showed his support for the Italian after Saturday qualifying at Spa.

"He was telling me to keep my head up, and that it's normal to have bad weekends, and to just keep believing," the Italian told reporters.

Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 television he could not imagine what the rookie was going through: "He's been doing fantastic. But to be thrown in at the deep end at 18... he hadn't even had his driving licence when he first started racing," he said.