Ferrari must cut out a run of "sloppy" errors if they are to keep the championship pressure on Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes, according to former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer. Speaking on the latest episode of the official F1 Nation podcast, Palmer warned that the Scuderia have failed to capitalise on the points gifted to them by Antonelli's recent reliability setbacks.

Antonelli continues to lead the Drivers' Championship by 50 points from Lewis Hamilton, while Mercedes hold a 72-point advantage over Ferrari in the Constructors' standings. Although Antonelli suffered a mechanically-related DNF in Barcelona and dropped out of the top 10 at Silverstone following an issue with a front wheel shield, Palmer believes Ferrari have not made the most of those opportunities — and that their own errors have undercut the momentum they could have built.

Palmer: Ferrari have been handed a chance — and wasted it

Palmer identified a series of costly lapses that have dented Ferrari's charge, insisting the team must eliminate such mistakes to remain a genuine threat in the second half of the season. The former racer pointed to the Silverstone round as a pivotal moment, where Charles Leclerc's victory — after Mercedes appeared set to win — significantly trimmed Antonelli's lead.

"There is the unknown of what Kimi does when he gets towards a title fight," Palmer explained. "Ferrari have to just keep the pressure on and see what happens.

"I'm a little bit disappointed in them in recent races, because I think they've just been given this chance with some reliability woes for Kimi. The wheel cover stuff in Silverstone was a really lucky strike for Ferrari. They [were] going to lose that race and they ended up coming through, taking a big dent out of Kimi's lead [with a win for Charles Leclerc]."

However, Palmer was scathing about the penalties that followed, listing Hamilton's jump start at Silverstone, an early deployment of the pit lane speed limiter in Hungary, and the impeding penalty in Budapest as needless self-inflicted wounds.

"And then they go and get all these penalties. So you've got a jump start for Lewis at Silverstone just because he moved his hand too quick — that's pretty sloppy. You've got him unlatching the pit lane speed limiter a fraction early in Hungary — it's hard to argue that's not pretty sloppy. You've got the bigger one of all of them actually probably being the impeding penalty in Hungary — my word, that's so sloppy from the race engineer at that point, and maybe a little bit from Lewis as well," he said.

"And those three penalties may cost them not just some points, obviously, but a little bit of momentum and a little bit of that pressure on Kimi, so they have to cut those out."

Hinchcliffe: Ferrari must be flawless from here on out

IndyCar race winner and analyst James Hinchcliffe echoed Palmer's assessment, agreeing that Ferrari can only stay in the fight if they perform without error — while also questioning how Antonelli would respond should his buffer start to shrink.

"We don't know how Kimi is going to react when it really gets down to crunch time," Hinchcliffe said. "If that 50-point buffer does start coming down for some reason, does he start to panic? Does he start to drive in a protective manner and does that create opportunities? It is possible. But, I think Ferrari have to be flawless from here on out if they've got a realistic shot at it."

Dutch GP preview and how to listen

Ferrari's prospects in the championship fight were just one of the talking points on the Dutch Grand Prix preview show, in which Palmer and Hinchcliffe joined F1 Nation host Tom Clarkson. The full episode is available via the audio player on the F1 website, as well as on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, with fans able to get their questions answered by recording a voice note and emailing it to F1Nation@F1.com.