Mercedes drops challenge to Antonelli British GP penalty

Mercedes chose not to appeal Kimi Antonelli’s five-second British Grand Prix penalty after initially reviewing whether the sanction could be overturned because of damage to his car. The FIA ruled the mechanical problem was not a valid excuse for the repeated track-limits breaches, and Mercedes concluded internally that the penalty was justified because Antonelli had left the track multiple times. The ruling dropped Antonelli from ninth on the road to 16th in the final classification.

The dispute centered on a front-left failure that Mercedes said came from debris or a foreign object lodged in the brake duct or wheel-shield area, later traced to a broken front-left wheel shield. The damage badly hurt the Mercedes W17’s handling, forced Antonelli into two late pit stops, and ended his realistic chance of fighting Charles Leclerc for the win. Toto Wolff said Mercedes’ simulations suggested Antonelli could have caught Leclerc with six laps remaining if the failure had not happened, and said the car would be returned to the factory to determine the exact cause.

Antonelli had been running near the front and said the outcome was unfair and hard to accept. His difficult Silverstone result came after he also failed to score in Barcelona, leaving him with two non-finishes in his last three races after five straight wins earlier in the 2026 season. Juan Pablo Montoya also called for Formula 1 to change its track-limits rules so drivers are not punished for running wide because of mechanical damage rather than driver choice.