Antonelli praises Verstappen as he plays down talk of Red Bull being the car to beat
Photo: Race Pictures
Kieran is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs and feature content across the F1 calendar. An NQJ-qualified journalist with more than a decade of experience, he has previously written for publications including MailOnline, the Manchester Evening News and the Eastern Daily Press.
Kimi Antonelli has stopped short of declaring Red Bull the team to beat, after George Russell suggested the team had moved ahead following its upgrade in Baku. Instead, the Mercedes rookie believes his own team still has more performance to unlock from its latest package.
After the Singapore Grand Prix, Antonelli was asked whether Red Bull's apparent advantage was down to its own upgrade or Mercedes failing to extract the maximum from its, Antonelli said the latter was probably the bigger factor.
“I think, yes, probably mostly us not extracting the maximum out of the new package," he said. "Of course Red Bull has done an incredible step forward. But as well, Max has probably been more comfortable with the car and just extracting more out of it. So, it’s a combination of things.”
Antonelli said Mercedes could see the gains its package was capable of delivering, but was still learning how to bring them out. He explained that the car’s operating window was currently “very small” and that its behaviour could change significantly depending on how a driver approached a corner or applied the brakes.
He added: "So hopefully now in Austin, we have three free practices, so we can be very open-minded with set-up and hopefully we can find a way and we can use the full potential of the package and finally see the gains. But I think the team did an incredible job this weekend on just putting the car in a better place and allowing me to get the confidence. And now it's a starting point to keep working and keep extracting the potential."
ADVERTISEMENT
Antonelli caught off guard by post Singapore GP discovery
Kimi Antonelli was surprised to learn from Jenson Button that he could mathematically clinch his first F1 title at the United States Grand Prix in Austin. The Mercedes driver moved further ahead in the championship with another podium in Singapore, but said the title was not on his mind yet.
After the Singapore Grand Prix, Antonelli seemed not to realise he could secure the championship at the next round. Button’s reminder prompted a surprised reaction, but the Italian soon refocused on the race ahead.
“Can I? Really? Let’s not worry about that. Let’s try to do the best weekend as possible and finish the job.”
Read also
ADVERTISEMENT
Don’t miss GPblog in Google
Mark us as a preferred source and our articles will appear more often at the top of Top Stories.
Add as a preferred / source on Google