Antonelli admits to ‘stressful’ start after Mercedes one-two at Australian GP
8th March 2026Mercedes managed to take victory in the season opener, down under in Australia, after a ‘stressful’ start for Kimi Antonelli, which saw him drop to seventh, as he had a low battery level when lining up on the grid.
Feature image credit: Mercedes F1
The team took a dominant victory at Formula 1’s traditional season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, with George Russell leading 31 laps to take Mercedes’ 61st one-two finish in the sport.
The King’s Lynn native enjoyed what he described as the “perfect way to start the season”. The start of the race was far from simple for the Englishman, as he admitted that the race wasn’t as straightforward as the results make it out to be.
Russell acknowledged the team “had a difficult and chaotic start and from there, were yo-yoing with the overtakes between Charles and me” before stating he could have deployed his energy “more smartly to defend when I first overtook [Leclerc] and that cost me”.
Russell took the lead and never looked back following early stops for Mercedes after Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull broke down, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car. The Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Hamilton would pit several laps later, losing time and eventually falling to third and fourth as they pit during green flag running.
Kimi Antonelli matched his best Grand Prix result in Melbourne, with the Italian taking his second, second-place finish of his career, taking the same result he did at Interlagos last year.
Antonelli admitted the weekend had “not been easy” but is proud to have “come away from [Melbourne] with a great result”, before praising the team on the work they have put into the W17, and looking forward to next weekend in China.
The young Italian had confirmed that he had a low battery level, which made the start ‘stressful,’ hindering his ability to get away at the race start. Adding onto an already stressful weekend after the 19-year-old just managed to get out for Saturday’s qualifying session after wrecking his W17 in Free Practice 3.
Toto Wolff, similarly, praised the team for executing within the unknown, before looking ahead, hoping that for the first time in five years, Mercedes can “try and fight for a world championship”. The Austrian mentioned his excitement in “seeing how things play out in Shanghai next weekend”, with a positive outlook on the remainder of the season, “I am sure it will only get even more interesting from here”.
Andrew Shovlin noted the team’s failures to start the race positively, admitting the difficulty the start brought the Silver Arrows. He said:
“We didn’t do a good enough job of managing the limited energy around the formation lap and both drivers ended up at with low battery on the line. Kimi in particular became a sitting duck off the line.”
Shovlin then went on to praise the team for their reaction to the poor start, showing pleasure in the victory for Mercedes, but emphasising work still needs to be done: “There is plenty that we need to improve on, but the team and drivers should be pleased with a great start to the season”.
Read more Formula 1 here:
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