Sawt Falasteen - Antonelli has his neck on the line with ever watchful father

The 19-year-old Italian, who leads the drivers' world championship for Mercedes, laughed as he recalled his father's words last Sunday after his sixth win of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix.

"My dad, one of the first things he told me after that race was 'congrats, but..,'" Antonelli told reporters. "There's always a but! 'If I see you getting another track limits warning for nothing, I'm going to stretch (wring) your neck like a chicken!'"

Ironically, the tough love came just 24 hours after the teenager had showered his father Marco in good wishes as he celebrated his birthday.

Antonelli may have opened up a 45-point lead over seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari and 50 on Mercedes team-mate George Russell, but he had made a habit of exceeding track limits for which he received several warnings.

"I guess you know that I like to use the track sometimes a bit too much," he admitted. "It's something I'm trying to work on. I look back at Spa and the two limits I did were very stupid.

"I need to work on it for sure because at some point I may need to use them, but if I use them when I don’t need to I might be in trouble."

He praised his father, family and Mercedes for giving him a warm environment in which to develop and enjoy his racing career.

"Having a great team, and a great family, around me has helped me on this journey so far and it's still doing that," he said.

"And my dad is kind of like my rock because we share so many things together and I always like hearing his point of view and that's what we've been doing ever since karting.”

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST