Kimi Antonelli believes Mercedes is finally beginning to unlock the promise of its latest W17 upgrades after a Saturday at Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit that offered encouraging signs following an initially bewildering introduction to the revised car.
The Italian’s fourth-place qualifying performance marked a welcome improvement in understanding and extracting performance from the new specification, which Mercedes had struggled to get to grips with following its introduction at Sepang.
Yet, while the progress was tangible, Antonelli cautioned that the operating window remained frustratingly narrow.
Mercedes begins to unlock its new package
Uncertain about the behaviour of its latest developments, Mercedes split its configurations for the Singapore weekend, with Antonelli retaining the new package while George Russell reverted to the previous specification.
The initial verdict appeared to favour the Briton, who secured second on the Sprint qualifying grid while Antonelli languished in seventh, more than half a second behind.
But the picture changed after Saturday’s Sprint, where Russell crashed out of the lead on the opening lap and Antonelli recovered to finish fourth.
Subsequent set-up adjustments helped the Italian find a more competitive balance for qualifying, where he outpaced his team-mate to claim fourth, with Russell settling for sixth before his engine penalty relegated him to the back of the grid.
Antonelli credited the team’s work for the improvement, while acknowledging that the car remained temperamental.
“Yeah, it did feel better, in a better place,” he said.
“I feel like the team did a tremendous job on doing these changes and putting the car in a better window. Although I feel the window was still very, very small during the session.
“The car was reacting differently depending on how I was driving it, and it was difficult to find the right balance on my side throughout Qualifying, where every set [of tyres] you just push it a little more.
“All in all, I think that today was a better day, and we start seeing the potential of the package. Also, we start seeing in which way we need to work. I’m happy with it. A big thanks to the team, and we’ll try to do our best tomorrow.”
Podium ambitions despite lingering doubts
Starting behind Max Verstappen and Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, Antonelli faces a formidable challenge on Sunday.
However, he believes the limitations exposed by qualifying might prove less troublesome over a race distance, when he can manage the car's behaviour rather than constantly chase the absolute limit.
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Russell owns up to Singapore setbacks: ‘A very bad day all in all’“In qualifying, you’re pushing to the absolute limit,” he emphasised. “For sure, I feel like tomorrow we can work our way around it a bit more, and hopefully we can fight for a podium.”
Mercedes will welcome the signs of progress, but the Singapore weekend has underlined that its upgrade package is not yet a fully understood weapon.
Antonelli’s fourth place suggests the potential is there; turning that promise into consistent performance remains the bigger task.
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