Andrea Kimi Antonelli has said his recovery drive after a poor start at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix was as hard as it could get to kick off 2026.
Antonelli was left with a mountain to climb after he binned his W17 into the barriers during FP3, on Saturday, at the Albert Park Circuit.
But the Mercedes mechanics were able to miraculously send him out in Q1 – aided by Max Verstappen calling out an early red flag after his Q1 shunt.
The Italian then delivered a solid qualifying effort, securing the Silver Arrows its 83rd front-row lockout with team-mate George Russell slotted into pole.
Come Sunday, however, things got tricky again for the 19-year-old. Mercedes had been struggling with the new race start procedures of these 2026 power units, and Antonelli was painfully slow off the line.
By the time the cars headed into Turn 4, Antonelli had lost out on five places, sitting in seventh. What ensued was a “stressful” self-imposed game of cat and mouse Antonelli had to endure to regain P2.
“Of course, the start was a game changer,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“Obviously, it was very stressful because I didn’t have power out of the last corner, so the car was not responding to any inputs and was very stressful.
“Then the start was poor, very poor, and I just lost a lot of places and found myself having to chase, but the car was very strong.”
How the W17 vindicated Antonelli despite tire troubles
The season-opening Grand Prix did turn out to be a race of attrition. Homeboy Oscar Piastri crashed out on his installation lap to the grid, and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg couldn’t even make it out of his garage.
12 laps into the 58-lap race, Isack Hadjar’s RBPT-Ford power unit gave up, calling out the VSC and giving the Mercedes duo of Russell and Antonelli a chance to amend strategy.
Mercedes double-stacked its drivers, though, on the white-walled Hard compound tires, Antonelli did not feel as confident as he had done with the Mediums.
“Well, I didn’t really know, to be fair, but obviously the pace of the car was very strong,” he added. “I felt very, very good in the first stint.
“Then the Hards, I started to grain very early on and had a bit of a difficult time, but then at the end, the pace came back.”
The Silver Arrows’ pitwall decided to stick with a one-stopper, and in the end, Antonelli managed to slot in behind his team-mate to the chequered flag and take Mercedes’ first 1-2 of the season.
“It was good fun at the end. The team did an incredible job because I think the result of today was thanks as well, mainly to the mechanics for the incredible job they did yesterday after FP3,” Antonelli explained.
“Definitely, it was a good end of the weekend, and now we will focus on China.”
Antonelli hopes for a smoother Chinese GP
The flying F1 circus will now move on to the Shanghai International Circuit for the second race of 2026, next week.
Antonelli highlighted how the season-opener threw a lot of questions at the teams, especially in terms of energy management.
The Italian insisted that the team has gathered a lot of meaningful data, and engine calibration at Shanghai, hopefully, will be an easier endeavour and an overall smoother experience for the Silver Arrows as compared to Melbourne.
“Well, I think for everyone, it was a massive learning. For the first time, we went racing. We did the first proper weekend,” the 19-year-old pointed out.
“Of course, we did a lot of testing, but testing is one thing, and race weekend is completely different. Shanghai is going to be important to be straight on point with deployment, with everything, because obviously, we go only one practise, and then we go into qualifying.
“But it should be a much more straightforward race in terms of how you deploy the energy.
“This race was probably the hardest race to start the season, because it’s just so difficult on energy with so many straights, one after the other.
“But I think it was massive learning for us drivers, for the team, also for the team to understand where to push development of the car, because this year, the rate of development is going to be massive, and it’s going to be important to not put any wrong step, because the situation can flip very quickly.”
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