Brundle says Antonelli is lucky to have Wolff and Bono after Canada sprint meltdown

Kimi Antonelli’s composure cracked during the Saturday sprint race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but the championship leader recovered to win the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday — and former driver Martin Brundle believes the teenager’s experienced support network deserves much of the credit.

As Antonelli and George Russell fought wheel-to-wheel during the sprint, the 19-year-old Italian took to team radio to accuse his Mercedes team-mate of pushing him off the track at Turn One. The complaints continued until team principal Toto Wolff stepped in, instructing Antonelli to save the conversation for after the race. Race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington, meanwhile, repeatedly urged his driver to refocus on the task ahead.

Brundle, reflecting on the incident in a column, was sympathetic to Antonelli’s position but clear-eyed about the reality of the on-track moment. “The inevitable happened into Turn One when Antonelli attempted to pass around the outside,” the former driver wrote. “He was very close to earning the right to racing room from his more senior team-mate, but in the end any driver fighting for a victory let alone a championship was going to run him out of track. Any of us would have done, or expected, the same.”

Brundle was equally candid about Antonelli’s reaction. “Kimi lost his head a bit for the duration of the Sprint such that the headmaster Toto Wolff even intervened on the radio,” he wrote. “Kimi is lucky to have the wisdom of Bono and Toto at these moments, the rest of us would have just gone straight to the scene of the contact or accident, and recriminations post race.”

The tension appeared to dissipate before qualifying, and the two Mercedes drivers produced another competitive battle during the grand prix itself. Russell was ultimately forced to retire with a battery failure, leaving Antonelli to take the win and extend his lead at the top of the championship standings.

The episode underlines both the pressures facing Antonelli as he navigates his first full season in Formula 1 and the value of the experienced figures around him. At 19, he is carrying championship expectations that would test any driver, and Canada offered a rare glimpse of the emotional strain beneath the results.