Stewards once again acted harsher than needed? Antonelli gets support after weekend-defining penalty

At the Red Bull Ring, heading into Turn 3, the Mercedes rookie locked up his rear tyre, and crashed into Max Verstappen's RB21. The incident led to both drivers having to retire from the Grand Prix already on Lap 1.

After the incident, the defending world champion remained calm, and explained he understands it was a mistake.

For the incident, the Mercedes driver received two penalty points, and a three-place grid penalty for the next Grand Prix he will participate in (which unless anything extraordinary happens will take place this weekend at Silverstone), the stewards shared their verdict after the session.

According to Olav Mol, the aforementioned severe penalty is part of the rookies learning it the hard way. "This is part of the learning curve for young drivers. I am convinced, and the stewards claim otherwise, that they always handle the newcomers a bit harsher than others to get them under control a bit quicker,” said the Dutchman at the Ziggo Sport Race Café.

Mol does not consider the penalty too harsh, but compared the incident with the crash of Lando Norris on Oscar Piastri in Canada. "Norris received no [grid] penalty for causing a collision in Canada. This was also a causing a collision but with different consequences.”

Norris received a five-second time penalty and no penalty points for his accident.

Robert Doornbos defended the Mercedes driver. "Consider Antonelli as a rookie. How many mistakes has he made? You can count them on one hand. This is actually his first major mistake. Shocking, but it can naturally occur when you're driving on cold tires,” said the former Red Bull Racing driver.