Tag Archives: Mercedes

September 29, 2025 · 3:27 pm

Can Antonelli carry his strong Baku form into Singapore and beyond?

After a tricky spell the Mercedes rookie bounced back with P4 in Azerbaijan

After frustration and costly Friday offs in Zandvoort and Monza and a jarring “underwhelming” review from his boss Kimi Antonelli was in dire need of a troublefree F1 weekend.

With perfect timing he got exactly that in of all places Baku, a tricky venue that caught out many big names over the course of the three days of the Azerbaijan GP.

The Italian qualified a solid fourth, just ahead of unwell Mercedes team mate George Russell, and then logged the same result in the race. Ultimately he lost out to the late-stopping Russell, which was frustrating, but he gained a spot back by passing Liam Lawson just after they had both pitted.

He subsequently pulled away from the Kiwi, who gave him a hand by keeping Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton behind. At a venue where it’s so easy to get it wrong overall it was solid performance, even allowing for the fact that he already knew it from F2.

“Not even a discussion, Monza was pretty poor,” said Antonelli when asked to compare Baku with the previous event. “This track is quite a bit more difficult. And there was no margin of error.

“It was very intense, the pace was very high, and driving-wise, I did a couple of mistakes. But also, fair to say, was the first time in Baku with F1.

“And also, we didn’t do any long running practice. So it was a bit of a discovery, of course, for everyone as well. But still a much better race than Monza.

“It’s been a difficult period and European season, and after all the criticism, and difficult moments, we managed to do a good result. And now is the important thing is to do this consistently.”

Had Antonelli been able to get past Carlos Sainz and claim third it would have been a perfect day, but nevertheless it was a good outcome at a track where there’s so little margin for error.

“Well, it’s a little bit disappointing because the podium was so close,” he said when I asked him about the race. “The hard tyre felt very good, quite a bit better than the medium. And the deg on the hard was minimum, and every lap was just getting better and better.

“So it was a bit of a shame, because I ended up being overcut. But still, I think it was decent performance.

“I was hoping for the podium, to be honest, because I almost got into the DRS of Carlos, but then I started to struggle a bit with the dirty air, especially in the second sector, and the tyres started to suffer a little bit.

“But still a decent performance for the team, because we gained quite a few points in the constructors.’ And now we will try to carry this momentum into Singapore as well.”

The pass on Lawson, who ran out of battery at the end of the straight having used it to defend earlier in the lap, was a useful boost.

“Yeah, I could see when he was using the energy and when he wasn’t,” said Antonelli. “I was struggling quite a bit on traction. I was getting close end of sector one and halfway through sector two.

“But then in all those critical traction phases I was struggling, and just couldn’t get the momentum. And only on hard, I had quite a bit of pace advantage, and I could get past.

“But it’s a shame, because I lost quite a bit of time behind him, especially in the first stint, and probably the outcome could have been different.”

The main thing was that he had pleased Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who was so clearly disappointed following the Italian GP.

“It was a really good rebound after Monza,” said the Austrian. “He had such a difficult spell with the European races. And coming in here with a with a solid P4, running in the front group, that’s something to continue to build on and consolidate and then score more good weekends until the end of the year.”

It was intriguing to learn from Mercedes engineering boss Andrew Shovlin in Baku that due to an issue with the Brackley simulator Antonelli had not been able to conduct his usual preparations for Zandvoort and Monza, which perhaps contributed to his Friday mistakes at both of those venues.

Shovlin also noted that Mercedes has continued to hone Antonelli’s sim programme, and that in turn may have helped to boost his Baku performance.

Can the youngster carry on the good work in Singapore, a track he has yet to sample outside the virtual world, and on to other upcoming venues – most of which he already has some experience of? It will be fascinating to see.

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September 12, 2025 · 12:20 pm

Why Wolff believes that underwhelming Antonelli has to get rid of “ballast”

The Italian’s rookie season has seen more lows than highs so far

For Kimi Antonelli the Zandvoort/Monza Formula 1 double header could hardly have gone any worse.

At both venues the teenager lost a practice session to a mistake, and then in both of the races he picked up a time penalty following an incident with a rival.

While team mate George Russell logged a fourth and a fifth place across the two weekends Antonelli’s only contribution to the Mercedes total in what is a closely-contested constructors’ battle was a ninth in the Dutch event.

Indeed since his solid third place and maiden podium in Canada back in June he’s scored just three points in six events, leaving his total at 66 compared to the 194 of Russell.

Obviously he’s a rookie, and as such there’s some leeway and a honeymoon period. Mistakes are inevitable, and part of the learning process. However Miami qualifying aside there arguably have been few signs of the sort of stellar performances that the true future greats typically show in their very early days.

Meanwhile fellow rookies Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto have both done an eye-catching job of late, and both men appear to be making progress each week, maximising their potential and making few errors.

It’s true that it’s easier to shine in an underdog team when you don’t face the sort of intense spotlight that Antonelli is under. Nevertheless both have shown the world what a newcomer can do with a 2025 car.

Monza was particularly poignant in that it came a year after Antonelli’s infamous FP1 gaffe at Parabolica in his first public appearance with Mercedes, which was followed the next day by confirmation of his race seat for 2025.

Going off in FP2 on the anniversary – just a week after a similar mistake in FP1 at Zandvoort – put him on the back foot. It didn’t impress team boss Toto Wolff, who gave a remarkably candid summary after the flag.

“Underwhelming this weekend,” said the Austrian. “You can’t put the car in the gravel bed and then expect to be [up] there. And all of the race was underwhelming.

“It doesn’t change anything in my support and confidence in his future, because I believe it’s going to be very, very good. But today, he was underwhelming.”

Losing a practice session is always tough for a rookie. Precious mileage cannot be reclaimed, and it means that the programme for the rest of the weekend is compromised.

Antonelli still qualified a decent P7 at Monza, just behind Russell, and it looked like he would make amends.

He gained a further spot from Hamilton’s penalty, but a bad start dropped him to P10 on the first lap. His tentative progress thereafter hinted at him trying to be super careful not get into any more scrapes after his clumsy contact with Charles Leclerc in Zandvoort.

That didn’t work out as he picked up a penalty for leaning a little too hard on Alex Albon. In the end it only cost him one place, and he dropped from eighth to ninth in the final classification.

“Apparently, I pushed him off track,” he said of Albon. “So I don’t know, to be honest, I need to look at it. But yeah, it’s a shame. But I think the race was compromised with the start. I got wheelspin straight away and just lost a lot of places.

“I’m happier about quali pace, which was strong, just a shame with the start that I did a mistake and lost a lot of places. So just need to work on that, and try to do better in Baku.”

He admitted that the FP2 error had been costly: “As I said, quali pace was better, which was good. That was much closer as well to George, but in the race… I didn’t do long runs in FP2 because of my mistake, so I wasn’t really prepared for the race.

“When you miss a full practice, especially in FP2, which is usually is quite important, because it’s where, also the track is the closest in terms of time and temperature to qualifying.

“FP1, yeah you do long runs, but the track usually is quite green, so the deg is a bit different, while FP2 is more representative. And just didn’t do the long run in the most important session.

“And I did a long run, FP3, but it was with soft tyres, which was quite irrelevant. So yeah, that was penalising, mostly for the race.”

“Looking to the next few races, it’s going to be important to have a clean weekend from FP1 all the way to FP3, and in order to be ready for quali and then races.”

Wolff agrees that that is just what Antonelli needs, although both upcoming tracks in Baku and Singapore are far from easy.

At the moment the problem seems to be that he’s overdriving, trying so hard not to make mistakes that inevitably they happen anyway.

“I think a clean weekend also means almost not to carry too much trauma, previous mistakes, into the next session, into the next weekend,” said Wolff. “Because that is luggage.

“You’re not going attack the corner hard if you’ve been off there before and finished your session, or maybe you’re not attacking a driver that you know should not be in your way. Like Gasly, Kimi shouldn’t even lose even a second to Gasly.”

So what’s the answer?

“I think just freeing him up,” said Wolff. “He’s a great driver. He has this unbelievable ability and natural talent. He’s a racer, it’s all there. But we need to get rid of the ballast.”

He still has eight races and a third of the season to go. He’s raced in Baku and Doha in F2, and tested current or TPC F1 cars at several of the remaining venues, but there are others that will be new to him – although ironically some of his best weekends this year have been at places he didn’t know. It’s now in his hands to show the sort of spark that Wolff and Mercedes expect.

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July 30, 2025 · 6:31 am

Why Antonelli has to rebuild his confidence with tricky Mercedes W16

Antonelli had another tricky weekend at Spa – and he admits he’s lacking confidence

For Kimi Antonelli the Belgian GP turned into another weekend of frustration as the rookie failed to log any points.

Qualifying P20 and P18 for the two events and finishing them in P16 and P17 is not what either he or the Mercedes team expect.

Remarkably his only score in the last seven weekends was his solid third in Montreal on a day when team mate George Russell won.

To be fair that run includes a couple of mechanical retirements and a hit from Isack Hadjar at Silverstone (when he was well outside the top 10), but it’s also clear that Antonelli has been struggling to come to terms with the car.

Russell has also had a difficult run since Canada. Mercedes technical director James Allison acknowledges that the team has lost its way of late with the W16, and that hasn’t made life any easier for Antonelli.

“I think he’s, like the rest of us, massively fed up with a string of results that are well below what we were collectively achieving earlier in the year,” says Allison.

“I hope he takes some solace from the fact that we tell him, and it’s demonstrably a fact, that we have taken the wrong steps with the car, making our team less competitive, and that he is paying the price for that, as is George.

“If the car isn’t where it needs to be, then it will be a struggle getting through the qualifying stages in your rookie season in F1. And it’s utterly clear to all of us that the thing we need to do is make the car better, and then Kimi’s fortunes will reverse with that.

“And hopefully, he’s listening to us as we say those reassuring words, because we absolutely know that he is putting in the effort on his side of that bargain.”

As a sprint weekend Spa was always going to be tough for Antonelli, notwithstanding the fact that he secured pole for the Miami sprint after just an hour of practice at a track he hadn’t been to before.

In Belgium a huge spin in SQ1 left him with damage and no chance to progress through, hence his P20 grid slot. With neither Alpine on the grid he gained two spots automatically and then in the race passed Nico Hulkenberg to secure 17th place.

Typically, he was very honest about his performance.

“Since the European season, I’ve been struggling to find confidence with the car, and I felt like I’ve done a backward step,” he said when I asked him about his form. “It’s a difficult moment for me, because I feel like I have no confidence on pushing. And yesterday I tried to push a bit too much, and then I spun.

“And then it kind of hurts the confidence even more. But it’s a difficult period. I think we know the limitation we have since quite a lot, but with the way I’m driving, I’m just increasing the problem. And that gave me even less confidence with the car.”

The team made some tweaks for Saturday afternoon’s main qualifying, which improved things. However he still managed only 17th, ahead of the struggling Aston Martin drivers.

“Definitely I think the car was in a better place for sure, compared to yesterday,” he said. “It’s just on my side, I still struggle to get up to speed quickly, just because the confidence has been missing. So I think there’s a lot of work to do on my side, and I try to find the light out of the tunnel as soon as possible.”

He also gave an interesting insight into what he needs from the car.

“Definitely a bit more stability, because with the way I drive, I’m a bit more aggressive with the inputs,” he said. “Also, compared to George, I’m a bit more aggressive overall. I tend to try and carry a lot of speed into the corner.

“And with the limitation I have, I’m just increasing the problem. So on my side, I’m trying to change a little bit the way I’m driving to also have the balance. Because, of course, it’s impossible to have the perfect balance. And I’m just trying to work on that side. But it’s not easy.”

He added: “The team has been trying to help me as much as possible, but on my side probably I’m trying to change the way I’m driving too much, and it feels like I’m not driving naturally. It’s very first forced the way I’m driving, and it’s just difficult.”

A lack of confidence in the car was not what he needed heading into a wet Sunday, and with little to lose from that grid position the team opted to drop him out of parc ferme and give him more downforce.

“We will change the car so we’ll start from the pitlane, and hopefully that will give us an advantage. And hopefully the confidence will be back.”

He wasn’t the only one to make that choice, so at the start he found himself third in the pitlane queue behind Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton, and ahead of Fernando Alonso.

For all of them and others on the grid who had already gone high on downforce for qualifying the lack of wet race running was to be frustrating.

“The car felt better with a bigger wing,” said Antonelli when I asked him about his race. “I felt much better in places where I was struggling a lot, and it was a shame, because obviously with the delayed start, it turns out it was a dry race pretty quickly, and we couldn’t really use the bigger wing…”

Before the change to slicks Antonelli passed Lance Stroll, and he gained three more spots in the stop sequence, before finding a way past Franco Colapinto. Stuck subsequently in the queue behind Pierre Gasly, he pulled a good move on Fernando Alonso.

Later like others with little to lose he estopped for new tyres, and after that had a little tussle with Esteban Ocon, nearly getting by the Haas driver only to lose out again.

During his chase he set the race’s fastest lap, which was some reward. However P16 wasn’t ideal, especially with Russell 52 seconds up the road in fifth place.

“Despite being much quicker in the corner than in the straights, it was really hard to keep up,” he said. “And it was a shame, because the only opportunity I had to pass Ocon, I went a little bit wide, and I took a wet patch, and then just had no grip, and he made the switchback.

“And then after that, the tyre was starting to suffer, and I just couldn’t get the run. But still, it’s learning difficult conditions. Also I tried to call quite early the switch [to slicks], but because of Silverstone as well, we probably were a bit too cautious on that, and we wanted to wait a bit more.

“And I think that’s where we lost some positions as well. But on the other hand, I think driving-wise, it was better this race, and I just need to keep working for qualifying.”

A clear track after his pit stop at least gave him a chance to show his pace’ albeit briefly.

“Those few laps where I was on free air, definitely had a lot more fun than being stuck.

“It’s quite frustrating, because you can’t really unleash the real pace you have. I mean, when I was in free air, I did that lap, and then once I was stuck, I was two seconds slower all of a sudden.

“It was tricky. But I think I shouldn’t be starting that far back. I think I need to work on my qualifying and work to get the confidence back with the car, in order to start more at the front, because when you start at the front it’s a completely different race.

“Still as I said, good learning, because having to have the right feel for the transition, then still fighting, trying to get by, especially in a DRS train. So definitely, good learning.

“And now we just need to, as I said before, do a better qualifying to start more at the front. Because in those races where I start more the front it is a completely different story.”

Life isn’t easy for Antonelli at the moment, and while the will he/won’t he jump Verstappen saga appears to be over, the prospect of the World Champion joining – and potentially pushing him and not Russell out – can’t have helped in recent weeks.

At Spa he did at least receive a welcome boost from his predecessor Lewis Hamilton.

“He came to say hi to the team, and definitely, we had a couple of words. He was telling me to keep my head up, and that is normal to have bad weekends and just to keep believing. It was really nice for me.”

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July 6, 2025 · 7:44 am

How chilled out Russell got his timing right in Silverstone qualifying

Russell saved his best session of the weekend for when it mattered in Q3

Given that he qualified on pole for the British GP 12 months ago you might think that George Russell would be disappointed to be starting only fourth this year.

In fact the Mercedes driver was more than happy with the final outcome after what had been a tricky weekend for the team – until with perfect timing he pulled off a great lap at the end of Q3.

Lower temperatures at Silverstone were expected to play to the strengths of the W16, but that didn’t really happen.

Eighth fastest on Friday and in the same position in FP3, Russell had a tricky Q1 that saw him asking his engineer to “stay calm” as they discussed the evolving run plan.

He got through in 11th and was ninth in Q2 – cutting it a bit fine, but job done nevertheless.

Then in Q3 he logged his best lap of the weekend to outpace the Ferraris and put himself in fourth, behind Max Verstappen and the two McLaren drivers.

“Really pleased with that last lap,” he said when I asked him about the session. “Every lap until that point, we were anywhere from five-tenths to eight-tenths off the pace, and we were scratching our heads a little bit today, because we thought with the cooler conditions, things would come more towards us.

“And it was only about last lap in Q3 when, when it did. So it’s always good when your best lap of the weekend is the last one.”

When I asked about the “stay calm” comment he noted that it’s not easy to get everything right as you try to progress through the sessions in the most efficient way.

“Q1 is a really challenging session for probably all the teams other than McLaren, because you want to try and get to Q3 on two sets of tyres,” he said.

“And to do that, you need to get through Q1 on one set of tyres, and also get through Q2 on one set of tyres as well.

“I think it’s always a bit frantic on the pit wall sometimes, and from my side in the car, I’ve got no visibility of what’s going on. So I was just like, ‘Let’s just chill out a bit.’ Tell me what you’re thinking, and we can discuss.”

He had no doubts about what conditions he wanted on Sunday.

“Cold and dry, to be honest. It’s clear whenever it’s warm, we struggle. Whenever it’s cooler, it’s better.

“So as I said yesterday, we’re working so hard to improve this, we have been fortunate that we’re racing here this weekend, because two weekends ago in England, it was 34 degrees. So that’s not how we should be racing.”

P4 was a decent outcome, but Russell conceded that the team was hoping for me before the start of the weekend given the cooler weather.

However it’s not just about ambient and track temperatures, but also the loads that the loads that the corners put through the tyres.

“I do think today was probably, on the whole, less competitive than we were potentially expecting,” he said.

“I think the likes of Ferrari have been very competitive this weekend, which was a bit of a surprise. I know McLaren have brought some little upgrades. We didn’t really bring anything, but we haven’t brought anything for a while now. So we just need to try and understand that.

“It is cool, but of course, still this circuit is so quick. You’re putting so much energy in the tyre, so much temperature of the tyres.

“The tyres are running hotter here compared to what they’re running in Canada. And Canada was 50 degrees track, here is 25 degrees track, but just because of the layout, so that gives it some perspective.”

Meanwhile it was a solid if unspectacular session for Russell’s team mate Kimi Antonelli, who earned seventh place behind the two Ferrari drivers before his Austrian GP crash penalty dropped him to 10th.

“I think was was okay,” said the Italian. “The lap was not amazing, but I’ve been struggling the whole qualifying in high-speed, just struggling with stability, and that killed a bit of confidence throughout the session.

“And I just think it was tough on that side, and especially Sector 2, and start of Sector 3 was always a bit of a struggle because of that. And obviously not super happy, because I have the penalty tomorrow, but we’ll try to build from there.”

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July 1, 2025 · 2:14 pm

What went wrong for Russell and Mercedes in Austrian “perfect storm”

A combination of factors cost Russell performance in Austria – however he still finished fifth

After qualifying in P5 in Austria George Russell admitted that his best hope for the race was simply to hang on to his grid position.

Helped by an instant retirement for Max Verstappen – who would probably have had the pace to get in front and stay ahead – Russell achieved his modest target.

Fifth wasn’t much for a guy who won last time out, but nevertheless 10 points was another useful score in a season that has seen Russell consistently at the sharp end.

He’s also now only nine points shy of third placed Verstappen, and beating the Dutchman over the balance of the season is a challenge worth pursuing.

Nevertheless Austria was not a weekend that Russell or Mercedes could be happy with, as high temperatures, the nature of the track and a setup call that backfired conspired to cost him performance.

“I was expecting a bad race, and it was worse than I even could imagine,” he said when I asked him about his afternoon. “The problem was so clear, coming off the back of Canada with the win – with no tyre overheating, we’re the quickest.

“But as soon as you get to a track where there’s a bit of overheating, we drop off so much. The team has been working so hard for six months now to try and solve this issue. We’ve got ideas, but we’re not really making major headway right now.”

Russell agreed that it could have been a lot worse as he once again logged the best result achievable on the day.

“For sure, damage limitation,” he said. “I still take pride in the fact that almost every race this year, we’re maximising the result.

“Today, we definitely could not have achieved anything higher than P5, the same way as last week, the win was the potential, and we got the win. So fingers crossed, it stays cloudy for the rest of the season…

“This was a bit of a perfect storm. The tarmac is one of the roughest of the season, obviously, high-speed circuit, you’re going around the track many times, the most number of laps in the season, and then 50 degrees track temperature. So it was sort of that perfect storm.

“Silverstone is a higher-speed circuit, but the tarmac is actually quite new, which is good news. If the track temperature is the same like last year, it was like 20 degrees, I think last year, it was quite cool, we were on pole. But two weeks ago, it was 31 degrees in England. So if it’s 31 degrees, we won’t be on pole this year.”

The good news for him is that lower temperatures are indeed predicted for the coming weekend, and that could give the W16 a boost.

Mercedes will certainly try to learn lessons from the Red Bull Ring, as team principal Toto Wolff acknowledged.

“When you look at our performance, last year we won the race here, and we were, I don’t remember, 10-15 seconds behind the leaders,” the Austrian said of his home race.

“It was a very solid performance. And this year we are minute behind the leaders. So that is clearly out of the ordinary. What happened today? We do experiment at the moment a little bit how to put the car on track, where we put the balance.

“And clearly, this one we got wrong, and we know that. So I think it’s not only down to those factors, asphalt, long corners and heat. Clearly, that’s not our sweet spot, but it doesn’t explain the gap, and I think we know why. But in hindsight you always know.”

Wolff admitted that the team had taken a setup route that while successful in Canada hadn’t worked out in Austria.

“We need to understand what creates those oscillations, and now is the moment,” he said. “We are not racing for the championship. P2/P3 whatever it is, at the end, only the winning counts.

“And the only positive I take from this race weekend is that we tried something extreme, which was good in Montreal, and it was a complete shot in the knee here.

“Because we could have gone to the setup that we had last year, and that would have put us, I don’t know, on the podium, maybe. But that is not what we tried.”

He continued: “In a way I’m getting fed up with my own explanations of we learn and then next time we understand better. That has been the constant Groundhog Day. But there was something which we tried to take from Barcelona and from Montreal in terms of how we set the car up and where we put the aero and mechanical balance.

“And that was that was clearly wrong. Now we have ticked this box. It would be dramatic if we were racing for a victory, if we were racing for a championship, which we do not. So analyse, dig deep, what was it? And go to Silverstone.”

Asked to expand on that setup choice He added: “We felt that there’s a certain direction we wanted to pursue, which is perfectly logical for Canada, and a bit counter intuitive for Austria.

“And our long runs looked very good. So we thought Kimi’s long run was maybe, second, third, fastest was really good. We can stick to that. And then obviously the temperatures got hotter, the grip ramped up.

“And then we kind of come to the conclusion that we should have maybe stuck to what we knew from last year here.”

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June 1, 2025 · 6:45 am

Russell searching for silver lining in Barcelona race

Russell starts from P4 in Spain – last year he jumped into the lead from the same spot

George Russell was fourth in FP3 on Saturday in Barcelona, and then showing remarkable consistency the Mercedes driver repeated that result in Q1, Q2 and Q3.

It was a solid qualifying session for the Brit, and a good way to bounce back from the disappointment of Monaco.

Last year he also started the Spanish GP from P4, and he managed to jump into the lead at the start, although as the race progressed he dropped back – to finish in the inevitable fourth.

“We know that on a Saturday, our car is anywhere between P2 and P5, that’s where it’s been all season, and again today,” he said when I asked him about the session.

“It’s good, we managed to get to Q3 only on two sets of tyres. So I’ve got a new soft tyre tomorrow, which is a valid race tyre. So that’s a positive, but we’re realistic, we know that the car isn’t quick on Sundays.”

Russell remains uncertain about the W16’s potential form in the hot conditions of Sunday’s race, which could make life tricky.

However he’s hoping that the harder compounds in use in Spain will favour the team.

“We also made a lot of changes to the car this weekend to try and improve the race pace,” he said.

“So to see that we haven’t really hindered the quali pace is a positive. But then also it may mean it’s not going to improve the race pace.

“So tomorrow is going to be an interesting one for us. We struggled a lot when it was the soft compound of tyres, when it was hot. But when it was the hard compound of tyres in Bahrain and it was hot, we obviously finished second there.

“So it’s when the tyres overheat, if the tyres overheat by 10 degrees on a C4 it’s much more punishing than 10 degrees on a C1 tyre. So that’s sort of the only slight silver lining to give us a bit of hope for tomorrow.”

Meanwhile it was a solid session for Russell’s team mate Kimi Antonelli, who will start from P6.

“After the two difficult weekends, especially qualifying, it was good to kind of get back into the rhythm,” said the Italian.

“Speaking about rhythm, it took me a little bit at the start of the session to get back into that rhythm of qualifying. But also that put me in a position where I had to use one extra set during the whole session, which compromised a little Q3.

“Because definitely the step between used and new was quite big. Overall, still P6. Obviously I want to finish a bit higher in the ranks. But at the same time, there’s a long race tomorrow.”

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May 27, 2025 · 3:47 pm

How Russell took a penalty and enjoyed an “exhilarating” clear run in Monaco

Russell spent much of the Monaco GP stuck behind drivers who were on a cruise

By any standards the Monaco GP was disastrous for the Mercedes Formula 1 team, which failed to score any points at the most prestigious race of the year.

The potential was clearly there, with setup changes after a difficult practice allowing George Russell to be as high as fifth in Q1.

However a PU failure early in Q2 stranded the Briton in 14th on the final grid – just ahead of Kimi Antonelli, who crashed at the end of Q1, having already made it through.

In the race the team opted to stay out and run long. The plan was spoiled by Racing Bulls and Williams both successfully implementing a strategy of backing everyone up to clear a pit stop window for the sister car, and Russell lost tons of time.

His frustration boiled over when he cut the chicane to pass a slow Alex Albon, something that earned him a drive through penalty. He took it on lap 53, prior to his mandatory tyre change stops on laps 62 and 68.

All of that at least gave him a clear track in the latter part of the race, something that allowed him to have some fun and drive flat out for a while. He was classified 11th at the flag, having set the race’s second fastest lap right at the end.

“We had planned with Kimi and I to basically do the same strategy as what VCARB and Williams implemented with the two drivers,” he told me when I asked about his race.

“But ultimately qualifying 14th and 15th, there is nothing you can do. You pit on lap one we’d have finished nowhere. You go long, we finished nowhere.

Ironically, I finished in a higher position by doing my manoeuvre with Alex than I would have done if I hadn’t. So that, in itself, proves the system’s pretty flawed.”

Russell admitted that he didn’t expect a drive through rather than a five or 10 second penalty, with the stewards clearly taking a dim view of his move.

“I was a little bit surprised, but I’ve got be honest, I didn’t really care,” he said. “Because I was out of the points I didn’t give a chance yesterday to enjoy Monaco, and I just said, ‘Screw it. I want to enjoy Monaco. I want to enjoy driving this track full gas.’

“It’s one of the best circuits in the world, and that’s what I did – the last 25 laps was the most fun I’ve had all weekend.

“Pretty exhilarating. I was really pushing my limits, testing myself. And as I said, ironically, if I didn’t do this, I would have finished maybe 15th or 16th.”

“It didn’t work because it was too easy for drivers and teams to work together to create the pit stop gap, invert the cars the next driver creates a pit stop gap and gives their teammate the free stop.

“So as I said, we had planned that ourselves, with Kimi and I, because that was our only hope of getting some points. And if everyone was driving flat out, as you do at any other race, and we ended up implementing our strategy, we both would have finished in the points. But VCARB did it, Williams did it. Then what can you do?

“Lawson took a 40-second gap to help Hadjar, and that was comfortable of him. And then Sainz did another 40 seconds. Driving four seconds off the pace here is dead easy. And our strategist said, anything less than three seconds of pace advantage is a zero percent chance of an overtake.

“You need four and a half seconds for a 50% chance of an overtake. So you effectively could put an F2 car out there, and they’ve got a chance of holding up an F1 car. I don’t know what the solution is. We were lucky in ’22 and ’23 that the wet races offered some excitement. Do they wet the track? I don’t know.”

He added: “We definitely need to have a real think what the solution is here at Monaco, I appreciate trying something this year, the two-stop. It clearly did not work at all. For all of the drivers qualifying is the most exhilarating moment of the weekend.

“Do we accept that there should be no race and it’s a qualifying race, and you do one on Saturday, one on Sunday, and the guy who qualifies pole get some points and gets a little trophy, number one on Sunday gets some more points, because that’s what we love most.

“I think that’s what you guys enjoy watching the most. And 99% of the other people in Monaco are here sipping champagne on a yacht. So they don’t really care…”

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May 10, 2025 · 10:05 am

How Antonelli’s mixed Miami weekend showed he’s learning fast

He was a star in qualifying in Miami but the GP itself was a struggle for Antonelli

Kimi Antonelli is the gift that keeps on giving, and every race seems to have a story attached to it as his Formula 1 rookie season with Mercedes continues to unfold.

As I’ve said before he’s brutally honest about any mistakes or any perceived underachievement, which is very refreshing, and helps to give context to his progress.

The Miami weekend saw two extremes for the Italian. This was a track he knew only from the Brackley sim, and yet after just a single FP1 session he outpaced team mate George Russell in sprint qualifying to become F1’s youngest ever pole winner.

Given how hard it is for everyone to get tyre preparation bang on these days, it was no small feat.

In the sprint itself he showed he still has a lot of learning to do when he ran wide on the wet first lap and dropped to fourth.

His race was then ruined when he pitted for slicks and Max Verstappen was released into his path. His quick reaction, carrying on through the pits rather than attempting to stop and potentially putting crew members at risk, showed what an instinctive racer he is.

In the main qualifying session later that afternoon he again outpaced Russell to secure third.

On the first lap of the Grand Prix he got ahead of Lando Norris to claim second. Inevitably he was passed by both McLaren drivers, and then he found himself with Russell – who started on the theoretically slower hard tyre – right behind him, and keen to get by.

Following his stop ultimately Antonelli slipped back after struggling on the hards, with both Russell and Alex Albon getting ahead.

Second on the first lap to sixth at the flag was not really the sort of progression he wanted.

“I need to check,” he said when I asked if there were lessons to be learned. “The race pace today was just not good, especially on the hard, I really struggled to make the tyre work during the stint, and I was just sliding a lot around and couldn’t really find lap time. So definitely need to analyse what went wrong in order to be better for Imola.”

Was it the most difficult situation he’d faced to date in terms of tyre management?

“I think it was quite unique, this race, because it was the first time that I really struggled to make the tyre work. But still, a lot to take away into the next weekend.”

Nevertheless from the outside at least it looked like a weekend of decent progress, although his focus was on what he didn’t optimise.

“I think in some ways, yes, in others not really,” he said. “But I think in terms of qualifying pace, it was a strong weekend, and definitely looking forward to the next one.

“I think it’s a lot about experience and getting confidence with the car and being able to push it more and more.

“And I think I felt pretty good from FP1 on that side. And so it was nice. It was a nice feeling also being able to put the lap more together. So yeah, that was really positive.”

For Mercedes boss Toto Wolff it was definitely a weekend of two halves, but he chose to see the glass half full.

“I think the high point definitely is seeing his speed on a single lap,” said the Austrian. “Great. That’s another proof of his talent, and a good indication to how the future can be.

“And then in the race, challenging, because it’s so difficult here to find the right reference. You can say was the medium stint quick enough, with George holding on in the back on the hard tyre? That was not good.

“And then when he went into the hard, he just lacks experience managing it the right way. And then finding the right references. And Bono really tried to guide him, but when you’re in that car, it’s not easy, and I think it’s just part of the learning curve.

“There’s nothing that is disappointing or not. Overall I go away with the feeling that he’s done a good job.”

To be fair to Antonelli Russell may have finished ahead, but he too struggled with tyre management, and not for the first time in 2025.

“We have a really fast car, I believe, on a single lap or on a few laps, absolutely where it can be,” said Wolff. “But we’re just not good on with the tyres over an extended run. And McLaren shows how it’s being done to a degree. I think that Red Bull with Max, they’re managing it better, also tricky performances and I would say we’re solid in what we’re doing.

“But they are definitely doing an excellent job by being able to go fast around the corners without overheating them. So this is what we need to look up to, and engineer our way out of that of the topic.”

Antonelli has faced a few unfamiliar tracks in recent weeks, and now he heads to three in a row that he knows from last year’s F2 campaign.

He’s also sampled both Imola and Barcelona in F1 TPC running with an older car, and that gives him a head start.

“Definitely,” he said. “I mean, first of all, Imola is a track that I’ve driven in all the categories. And Barcelona as well. So I know the track well this time. So definitely it can help for the weekend. But it’s not that because I know it that it’s going to be easy. It’s going to be important to be on top of the game.”

What we don’t know yet is what sort of reception he’ll get in front of his home crowd. Over the years Italy has had race winners in Riccardo Patrese, Michele Alboreto, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli. However the received wisdom is that Antonelli is the one, the guy who can eventually be his country’s first World Champion since 1953.

“Well, for sure, first home race, and definitely it’s going to be a special one,” he says. “So I’m going try to make the best out of it as well.

“It’s going to feel weird that I’m going to be sleeping at home. And apparently it’s also the last year for Imola. So I really want to make the best out of it, because it’s going to be special.

“I always try to for myself to keep expectations low. Of course I go on track and try to do my best. Qualifying was really special this weekend, and it would be good to repeat myself in Imola as well.”

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April 17, 2025 · 9:51 am

How a “confusing” Bahrain GP moved Antonelli along his F1 learning curve

The Italian teenager had his best qualifying result in Bahrain but missed out on points

Kimi Antonelli’s Formula 1 education continues apace, and the Mercedes rookie learned a few more lessons in Bahrain last weekend.

He was given plenty to think about after a superb initial P4 in qualifying turned into 11th place in the race – and for the first time he failed to score any points.

Nevertheless the Italian’s progress in qualifying over recent events provides an intriguing indication of how he’s moving along his F1 learning curve.

Saturday in Australia was spoiled by floor damage, but over the next three weekends his results in Q1/Q2/Q3 were P10/P9/P8, P8/P7/P6 and P6/P5/P4.

The last result became P5 on the grid with a penalty that was no fault of his own. However, the numbers show that not only is he getting better by the weekend, but he also improves through each qualifying session, and does his best lap when it counts most.

The race in Bahrain wasn’t straightforward for Antonelli. He lost a couple of places at the start, but thereafter was still very much in contention for points, and fighting with some big names, notably Max Verstappen.

He was pitted and given soft tyres just before the safety car came out. Rather than leave him out to gain track position the team stopped him again for more soft tyres.

That third pit visit put him out of synch with the cars that he had been fighting, and left him 11th at the flag. It’s all part of his ongoing education.

“It was pretty confusing,” he conceded when I asked him about his race. “Lap one was a bit borderline, because I got pushed off in six, and then obviously lost three places, but then I was fighting back. I was back to P5. And then in the first pit stop, I knew I would have got undercut, because obviously I pitted one lap later.

“But then obviously I was able to progress again. On the medium, honestly I was struggling, because I pushed a bit too hard on the on the out lap and first lap, and then cooked the tyre. And then I found myself a bit struggling, but I still had decent track position.

“And then I put the soft again. And after two laps, obviously the safety car came out, because there was debris, and there we need to review why we made the call to go back in. Because many other people stayed out, Verstappen stayed out, and Ocon stayed out, and they were behind.

“And so we need to review why that. At the same it’s always easy to talk after, but we need to review why it happened in order to improve it for Jeddah.”

Antonelli simply did what the team told him to do on strategy.

“I didn’t decide,” he said. “I just asked them if they were sure on the last pit stop to go back in because obviously it was two laps on the tyre. And I didn’t have any new tyre, I put another used soft.

“So definitely, we need to review why. But overall, also my side I didn’t do everything perfectly, and I definitely need to see when I need to do better for Jeddah.”

His race included an incident that earned Carlos Sainz a penalty for forcing him off track: “I saw [him] in the last moment. Luckily I opened the steering wheel, because we would have crashed for sure. I don’t know if he just missed the corner, or if he just launched in.”

Antonelli’s honesty in admitting that he needs to do better is refreshing. He’s learning by the weekend, and quietly putting all the pieces together.

“Qualifying was a good step forward in terms of pace,” he noted. “Also, I felt much more comfortable racing with others, much better making overtakes, moves. I felt quite comfortable with it.

“So definitely there are positives to take away. Of course, it was not what I was hoping for, because I was aiming for a lot higher.”

Bahrain was the first venue on the 2025 schedule that he’d experienced with an F1 car, so that gave him a head start that he hasn’t enjoyed elsewhere.

“On some tracks, like Suzuka, I felt really good with the car,” he said. “But obviously, I think it will take still a few races just to understand everything, especially on different tarmacs, on tarmacs like this, that are super open and the deg is big. So still a lot to learn.

“And definitely, I still am not even halfway. So much more confidence to take with the car and better understanding, especially in the race, how much to push.

“Suzuka was a race where I didn’t have to really worry about deg. And this was the first race where deg was massive. And plus as well I found myself in a DRS train, so deg was double. Still lots to learn.”

Jeddah will be another new experience for the teenager despite knowing his way around the track, simply because of the speeds involved and the lack of margin for error.

“I did it of course in the F2,” he said. “It’s going to be the first city track with the F1, so it’s going to feel quite quick, definitely, because the pace difference between the two cars is quite big. So the first few laps are going to feel fast. But I think we can do good.”

[If you’re an outlet that can use stories like the above please get in touch as I am available for work!]

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April 5, 2025 · 2:21 pm

The brutal honesty that will serve Antonelli well

Antonelli will start sixth in Japan on Sunday

Kimi Antonelli continues to impress as he works his way along a steep learning curve at Mercedes, and after a wet debut in Melbourne followed by a full race with a damaged floor in China he could have done with a straightforward weekend at his third attempt.

Instead he got Suzuka, a track he didn’t know – plans to do a Super Formula test late last year were abandoned due to illness – and which is one of the most difficult on the calendar.

After struggling to find his way over the three practice sessions he showed that he learned by being P8, P7 and P6 over the three qualifying decisions, those numbers somehow symbolising his overall rate of progress.

But what really caught the eye when he talked after the session was his brutal honesty about his own performance. He cited a lack of confidence in the free practice sessions, and took full responsibility for opting for a “safe” setup, in other words one with higher than optimal downforce.

That honesty is a quality that has helped endear him to the team and which will serve him well as he continues to progress.

“Happy with how the session went, but on the other side, disappointed,” he said when I asked him about it. “Because I had to make such a step in driving from free practices. I was very lost in practice. I really had no confidence to push more, and to progress.

“And I was like, kind of stuck from where I finished in FP1. I headed into qualifying with very little confidence, and having to make a really big step in driving. So overall I was getting there, step-by-step. But yeah, it definitely is a good lesson ahead of the next race.”

These days drivers do so much work in the sim that they could drive their first real laps of most tracks blindfold, but Suzuka isn’t quite that straightforward.

“The thing is, it’s definitely a really fast track,” he said. “It’s not easy as well, first sector especially, because it’s quite narrow. But you need to get the timing right with all the turning points. But as well I think also with the setup, we started quite safe, because I didn’t have confidence, so I needed to get confidence.

“But then as the track was improving and cooling down, I didn’t really had the courage as well to push the setup even further. So also, that is something that I learned for the next qualifyings. But overall I’m happy, because I felt like I maximized the result.”

He made it looks easy, but it wasn’t: “Mentally it was really tough, because when you’re kind of stuck there and you see that you really struggle to make steps, mentally it’s difficult. Especially because you see that you have to make such a step in all the sectors.

“It’s every corner you have to make a massive step in driving. So I really dug deep, and really tried to focus on what I had to do. And eventually it was a decent lap. Of course, far from perfect, but I cannot complain about it either.”

So how did he find that improvement?

“It was a mix of everything. What I really like to do is re-watching my lap, because I can see where maybe I do a wrong line, or where I could have done better. I was getting there, step-by-step.

“Also, I think using two sets in Q1 didn’t really help, but that was on me, because I didn’t do a good enough lap at the start. Because I think with two sets in Q3 it definitely could have helped me as well, to make a further step.”

Regarding the set-up chosen for qualifying he said: “It was not massively different, but definitely it was more safe. Because as I just said before, I had no confidence, and so definitely was more on the safe side, but definitely on the end of the quali it was a bit too safe.

“But that’s not on the team, it was my decision, because I was feeling good with it. I was getting the confidence back. Definitely in that last lap that I had decent confidence, I probably could have asked the team to push the setup a bit more on the edge.

“Melbourne was a really big test, the race. But I think on the mental side, this was a good test as well, because when you’re so far off in in three practices, not one free practice, all of them, it’s really hard mentally.

“And especially you go into qualifying and you’re uncertain of what you can achieve as a result. So, it was really good test mentally, and I was happy with how I reacted to it.”

He admitted that he would have had a decent head start had he done the Super Formula test as planned.

“Also that didn’t help, because I was meant to test, but I was ill, so I couldn’t really do anything. So I just went home after Abu Dhabi, because even in that post-season test, I wasn’t feeling very well, and I was meant to fly right after it, but I was too ill to go there and drive.

“So of course, it was unfortunate, because probably it could have helped, just to know the track a little bit more. But as I said before there’s still some disappointment with the performance, but at the same time, I cannot complain with how the session went.”

Kimi scored decent points in the wet in Australia, despite a spin, and he’s not afraid of more of the same. Pretty brave considering how tough Suzuka is in the wet…

“I wouldn’t mind some rain, maybe a bit of chaos at the front, but we’ll see tomorrow. I think we’ll see in the moment. But a lot of data to look at overnight in order to be ready for tomorrow.”

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