F1 fans were left disappointed after Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli was seemingly spotted crying inside his car after getting eliminated from the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix sprint shootout. The Italian driver has had a mixed rookie campaign this year, as his season has started to unravel after a bright start in the opening few races.The 18-year-old was handpicked by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff to replace the departing Lewis Hamilton last year and was promoted from F2 despite finishing P6 in the category.Since the start of the European leg of the 2025 season, Antonelli has struggled to keep up with his more experienced teammate George Russell on the track. He hit a new low during the Belgian GP Sprint shootout, as he classified last in the session owing to his spin on his first.In a clip floating on social media, Kimi Antonelli could be seen seemingly crying after finishing in P20 and constantly apologizing to his race engineer.F1 fans took to social media to give their reactions to the clip on X, with one fan claiming:"I'll be real, this kid shouldn't have been in Merc this year, it's honestly wayy too much pressure due to how much Toto hyped him.""The anxiety of another error that could cost him his seat.""I think the push to put kids who aren’t done with puberty into F1 cars is a bad thing," said a fan.Here are some more reactions:"It would get even worse against Verstappen. Problem is that Toto thinks Kimi is the next Verstappen," wrote a fan."Wolf was banking on him being the next max. Kimi should have had another year in f2 really as last year he was getting up to speed. If he’s crying over this the sport isn’t for him," said another."They made netflix documentarys on this kid hyping him up to be the next senna," pointed out another.Kimi Antonelli finished P7 and P1 in the past two Sprint Shootouts in China and Miami, respectively.Kimi Antonelli gives his take on his mistake in the Sprint ShootoutMercedes driver Kimi Antonelli admitted that he got a bit too greedy during his sprint shootout, which led to him making a mistake and finishing the session last among all the drivers.As per F1, the young Italian analyzed his performance and said:"It was a shame to have our Sprint Qualifying session go the way it did. The car was good in FP1 and in the first half of my first lap in SQ1, it was feeling even better."Unfortunately, I got a little bit greedy on the throttle at turn 14 and had a spin through the gravel. I picked up damage from that and, despite trying my best on my second lap, the performance wasn’t there in the car to do anymore than we saw."Kimi Antonelli will have 14 laps in the sprint race to make positions and potentially gather some important data for qualifying and the main race later in the weekend.