The recent struggles of Mercedes with his car from 2025 played a role in the loss of confidence of Kimi Antonelli, believes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.
Antonelli has only one point-scoring finish in the last seven-round-being’s first stage in Canada where teammate George Russell won and retired four times at the time. The Italian Rookie admitted in the Belgian Grand Prix that he had no faith in the car, and Shovlin says that the gap between the two drivers on Russell’s experience is when dealing with difficult machines.
“I think what you have seen in recent qualifications is that George leans on his many years of experience in an F1 car to try to get the most out of a difficult car when it comes to qualifying. Kimi did not let that go back, and that is probably why you have seen a bit of a shift in his results.
“But it goes back to the fact that we have to solve that problem, because there is still a long way to go this year. It is probably something that we have changed in the car, and we just have to recover a little … Just go back to a basin where it normally works.
“Kimi’s have had a few tough weekends, but he gets a lot of technical support from Bono and the engineers on that side of the garage. We as a team are well aware that the thing we should concentrate on is the weaknesses in the car, not the pieces that Kimi is struggling with. And the fact is that George is to float, it is floating.
“We find a lot of time during the session. It is only because George learns to know when he can trust the car and you can lean on it, but he does not get that feeling inherent, he just has to find out where it actually stays and where not.”
Shovlin believes that car developments in this year moved the W16 from the consistent performance level that it had at the start of the season, but says that the team has full confidence in the capacities of Antonelli, seen what he has already shown if the car is strong.
“Kimi is on a steep learning curve and he gets better as a driver. The fact that his early versions were better than they are now is almost certain that the car is not that competitive, and you see that reflected in George’s results.
“We have also seen it before. When a young driver comes in and they are in a very good car, they can often really impress. When a young driver comes in and they are in a difficult car, it is very difficult to get it out week in, week out.
“We have seen enough of Kimi to know that there is a lot of talent there. But what will George help Kimi to help, and it will probably help Kimi more.”
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