Hamilton provides support to Antonelli as the Mercedes situation worsens.

      Kimi Antonelli’s challenges at Mercedes have led to significant support from Lewis Hamilton and discussions of an internal crisis at Brackley. Following a disappointing weekend at Spa, the 18-year-old became emotional during a media session. Despite his current struggles, Mercedes is likely to keep him through 2026, though some analysts remain skeptical.

      "I would ease the pressure on Antonelli and arrange for him to go to Flavio Briatore," remarked Ralf Schumacher on Sky Deutschland, indicating that a potential move to Alpine might benefit the young driver. Hamilton, who is now with Ferrari, made an unusual visit to the Mercedes motorhome at Spa after hearing about Antonelli's emotional struggles.

      "I can’t imagine what it's like at 18—or try to envision what it’s like at that age—to be doing what he is," Hamilton stated. "He was thrown into a tough situation at 18. He didn’t even possess a driving license when he commenced racing. I believe there’s an enormous amount of responsibility on him. He’s doing exceptionally well, and he has a wonderful team supporting him. Bono is right by his side. You couldn’t ask for a better person. So, it’s essential to take things slowly."

      Antonelli later confirmed their conversation. "He came to greet the team, and we shared a few words," the Italian told Sky Italia. "He advised me to stay positive and mentioned that having bad weekends is normal, encouraging me to keep believing. It was very kind of him."

      However, Mercedes’ issues go beyond just their rookie driver. Between the Spa event and this weekend’s Hungarian GP, an urgent technical meeting is scheduled at Brackley with both Antonelli and teammate George Russell. Engineering chief Andrew Shovlin noted, "We can’t eliminate the instability during corner entry. It seems that an earlier wing modification may have misled us, and we need to rectify that. Other teams can evidently achieve better balance with their cars. We’re reviewing every design change we’ve implemented in recent races. We believe a solution exists, but first, we need to identify where we went wrong."

      Shovlin also recognized the experience disparity between the drivers: "George is utilizing his years of Formula 1 experience to extract the maximum from a challenging car. Kimi lacks that experience, which is reflected in his results." Nevertheless, he emphasized: "What benefits George will also assist Kimi. We need to return to a baseline where the car operates effectively."

      Russell concurred: "The car simply doesn’t feel as good as it did earlier in the season. We are lacking rear stability. Both Kimi and I are making more errors. We truly need to unify as a team. It might be as straightforward as taking a few steps back, but it’s usually more complicated than that. We’ll have a thorough discussion this week to try to resolve these issues."