Kimi Antonelli blames Mercedes for his mid summer 2025 slump – Rookie Kimi Antonelli had a bright start to his Formula One career in 2025, but come the European racing season he fell off a cliff. He now blames a decision take by the Mercedes team for his collapse in form on a decision made during the opening flyaway races.

The bright Italian racing star scored points in five of his first six race weekends averaging a P5 finish with the exception of Bahrain. Yet his P5 start resulting in a P11 finish in the Arabian Kingdom was not all his fault.

Mercedes elected to start Antonelli on the medium tyre at the Sakhir International Circuit which meant he lost out on lap one to Lando Norris and Max Verstappen who both began the Grand Prix on the quicker soft tyre.

 

 

 

Mercedes decision ruined Antonelli’s car feel

Yet the reason he finished outside the points in P11 lay within there Mercedes strategy which pitted him on lap 12, ahead of his main rivals and the resulting safety car two laps later meant Antonelli was shuffled down the order. Otherwise it would have been points scored in his opening six races.

However, Mercedes had made a decision to introduce a reconfigured suspension upgrade at round seven in Imola, which precipitated the collapse in form for the young Italian. The headlines from Imola were that Kimi had been distracted by his first home race and the high octane media attention it created yet the fact of the matter was the feel in the car had suddenly changed as the result of the new suspension making the rear end significantly unstable.

Antonelli qualified just P13 and a throttle issue forced him to retire from the Grand Prix on Sunday. But behind the scenes there was more going on than met the eye at the time. Across the nine weekends from Imola to Zandvoort (inc) Kimi finished inside the points on just two occasions and the once 45 point gap to his team mate George Russell rocketed to a 120 points deficit.

Mercedes decided their relative poor performance in the low speed corners together with rear tyre issues they were suffering required modification of the rear suspension. And whilst George Russell now in his seventh season of F1 racing could drive around the newly introduced rear instability it was a bridge too far for a rookie.

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New suspension introduced rear end instability

In Canada, the Brackley based team enjoyed a rare weekend of glory. Out of the box their car was quick and come Saturday afternoon Russell put it on pole whilst Antonelli was to start the race in P4. A brilliant move on Piastri saw the Italian take third in the race which he held to the chequered flag despite pressure from behind.

This fantastic result for Mercedes unfortunately reinforced the notion amongst the engineers that the new suspension was the way to go for the remainder of the season. Yet the drivers’ both continued to complain about the instability in the rear of the car.

Now the car was unstable in the high speed corners and so in Hungary the team experimented with a return to the suspension which they used at the start of the campaign. Russell made the final step on the podium at the Hungaroring and Antonelli crept into P10 to score for the second time in eight race weekends.

The engineers were convinced this was the right direction in which to continue and Toto Wolff confirmed the problematic rear suspension upgrade would be “ending up in a bin” for good.

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Kimi admits “loosing confidence”

Antonelli now reveals the cost of the Mercedes suspension experiment. “I think I’ve lost a good two or three months of progress,” Antonelli reflects. ”Obviously, I struggled with the rear end more than George. I struggled more to adapt, mainly to do my driving style.”

“It was a difficult period because I just kept losing confidence, driving super tense and I just really struggled to make any progress. And obviously if I either was able to adapt better or if either I would have gone back earlier to the suspension, probably it would have been a bit different, and I would have been able to build momentum already at the end of the European season or halfway through it.”

The Mercedes’ director of trackside operations, Andrew Shovlin, believes the experience has made Kimi Antonelli a better driver. The team were also surprised at how quickly their protege adapted to the long runs during a race, although qualifying was initially more of a challenge.

“We expected long runs to be the hardest, but he was strong there immediately,” Shovlin said. “Single-lap performance took more work. Learning to trust the tyres and generate temperature early was key.

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Mercedes’ boss praises Antonelli’s aptitude

“He now understands the flow of a race weekend much better. His ability to describe what the car is doing has always been strong, which is one of the most important things.

“Over time, he’s building a database of cause and effect with setup changes. A key area is learning how hard to push — not under- or over-hitting. Budapest was an example where he overcooked it. Toward the end of the year, as results improved, he sometimes overdid it in Q3 after strong Q1 and Q2 performances.”

“These are details drivers with many years of experience have learned the hard way. What’s good with Kimi is that once he learns something, it sticks. He’s not repeating the same mistakes. Overall, we’re very much on track with him.”

Whilst team boss Toto Wolff publicly flirted with Max Verstappen in an effort to recruit him for 2026, both Russell and Antonelli were forced to wait to see who would be retained for next season. Eventually Max decided he would remain with Red Bull Racing for at least another and both drivers now have one more year to prove their worth to the team.

 

 

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