Could Antonelli have won the Italian GP without the VSC?

Lining up 19th on the grid of his home Italian Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli must have been cursing the Mercedes algorithms.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said it was the algorithm that dictated Antonelli take a back-of-grid engine penalty at his home race because the computers “don’t take [drivers’] nationality into consideration”.

Those same systems told him he had no chance of winning the race. A top-five finish was his likely result, and even after making his monumental comeback to lead the race on Lap 18, his tyre strategy should have limited him to second place at best.