Mercedes expects 'Ferrari headache' will make its life difficult again in China

Photo: Race Pictures

11:21, 14 Mar

byKada Sarkozi

Ferrari has been Mercedes' main competition in the 2026 season. The German team seemingly has the upper hand, but pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli named a couple of things he needs to watch for in China.

Antonelli became the youngest Grand Prix pole-sitter at the Shanghai International Circuit. George Russell will line up alongside him, while the two Ferraris will start from the second row.

Regarding the Scuderia, identified two areas where he expects Ferrari to be strong.

He said: "Well, they certainly look very strong, especially also on cold tyres. They look like they’ve got good pace, but of course also the start is a very strong point of theirs.

"So yeah, just going to try to have a clean start and then we’ll see from there."

Russell also expects Ferrari to cause further headaches

The British driver finished in second place today, after he previously won the Australian Grand Prix and Saturday's Sprint in Shanghai. On both occasions, he had hard-fought battles with the Ferraris before being able to pull away.

Russell added: "I hope (it's going to be different), to be honest. But it has been great opening few laps for the last two races.

"We know Ferrari are quick off the line and we’ve got them in P3 and P4, which is the first time of the season, and Lewis was obviously great at the beginning of the race this morning, so I am sure it’s not going to be straightforward."