Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli has been left bemoaning his updated Mercedes package after qualifying just seventh for the Singapore Grand Prix sprint race.
The 20-year-old has been the dominant driver of 2026 as he holds an 86-point advantage over team-mate George Russell in second, but the last week has been difficult for Antonelli.
That’s because Sepang last weekend saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominate from pole, with Antonelli settling for second despite Mercedes bringing a substantial upgrade to Malaysia.
But it couldn’t quite get a tune out of it, so for Singapore this weekend, the Italian remains with the updated W17 while Russell has returned to the older specification for a comparison.
Yet everything is not going smoothly for Antonelli, who took seventh for Saturday’s sprint race, 0.573s behind second-placed Russell and 0.693s off polesitter Verstappen.
“Already in FP1 I was struggling,” Antonelli, who was also seventh in that session topped by Russell, told F1 TV. “Still a lot to understand about this package.
“It’s really the car is very difficult, very unpredictable and very difficult to put a lap together.
“So yeah, it’s a shame because I was coming with high hopes, but so far, it’s been very difficult.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
Those comments are in line with what team boss Toto Wolff said post-FP1, as the Austrian claimed that “the new car seems to be a little trickier to drive”.
So Antonelli is not particularly confident for the rest of the Marina Bay weekend, with Verstappen looking the dominant driver and McLaren and Ferrari also in the mix.
“It’s going to be a difficult weekend, unless we can pull something out tomorrow,” he added.
“But other than that, it’s going to be very tricky. I don’t really see where we can find seven tenths, but you never know.
“Maybe tonight, Bono [Peter Bonnington], the engineers, we’re going to find something in the car and for sure I’m going to try to improve a little bit, the driving, and then let’s see.
“We’ll see tomorrow where we end up.”
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