Mercedes played the rulebook against the FIA to ensure Andrea Kimi Antonelli did not receive a track limits penalty at the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
Antonelli’s third-placed finish at the Marina Bay Street Circuit means he can wrap up a historic maiden F1 title at Austin in two weeks’ time.
But the Italian racing driver’s evening on the streets of Singapore could have panned out differently if not for Mercedes’ intervention.
Antonelli had accumulated four track limits warnings, which mandated the 20-year-old to receive a five-second time penalty.
During the 62-lap race, the Mercedes driver had gone wide at Turn 2 twice, and once at Turn 19, earning him the black-and-white flag.
His fourth and punishable track limits violation came at the VSC restart at Turn 7, but the Brackley-based team got it overruled.
“I had a discussion with the FIA about the fact that he had a warning and then he had another strike; he should have had a five-second penalty,” Viaplay F1 commentator Nelson Valkenburg told The Race F1 Podcast.
“He triggered one, but they reviewed it, and then they saw that he didn’t. Mercedes asked for a review in that one.
“This is why the penalty of five seconds never came, because indeed he had the [black-and-white final] warning flag and then he triggered one again.
“Maybe even with the braking issue that he had after the pitstop, that could have probably also been it.”
The “justifiable reason” why Kimi Antonelli avoided F1 Singapore GP penalty
Track limits violations are governed by the F1 Sporting Regulations. The rulebook says that a driver must not leave the track “without a justifiable reason”.
For Antonelli, Mercedes’ probable defence would have been the brake and sensor issues he was facing at the time of the fourth and final infringement.
“On the restart of the VSC, when I went to brake, nothing happened,” Antonelli had explained after the race.
“I had really poor stopping, brake power and I almost went into the wall. It was just very tricky out there, and also the pedal was very long.
“But it was also kind of expected. I’d run three-quarters of the race behind a car in dirty air and obviously being so hot. Plus, we also had the sensor issue on the brakes, so we didn’t even have the data about the brakes.
“We didn’t know exactly what temperature they were running, so it was all about feeling. But they were hot because I could even smell it, so it was not very pleasant.”
Antonelli needs to win the US GP, with his team-mate George Russell coming home in ninth or lower (including a few more favourable outcomes) to seal the 2026 F1 drivers’ crown.
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