Australian F1 GP | Mercedes, Antonelli second: "I want to fight for the top spots."

The World Cup Formula 1 2026 officially opened its doors on the street circuit of Melbourne, inaugurating a season that promises to be a relentless technological battle. In this scenario, the Mercedes Benz She showed up at the inaugural event with the clear intention of playing an absolute leading role. Ours is also at the center of attention in the Brackley box. Kimi Antonelli, who is starting his second consecutive season as a full-time driver for the three-pointed star. If 2025 was the year of impact and discovery, 2026, according to the team's strategy, must be the year of definitive confirmation for the young Italian talent, finally sitting in a potentially world-beating car.

The first day of free practice confirmed the symbiosis between Antonelli and the new W17 is already at an advanced level. Despite the typical pitfalls of a "green" and slippery track like Albert Park, the Italian showed a certain composure in handling the initial criticism, transforming a complicated Friday morning into an afternoon of very high performance.

From the difficulties of FP1 to the afternoon reaction

The morning session wasn't a walk in the park for the Mercedes garage. Both Antonelli and his teammate George Russell They had to contend with a precarious balance, heavily impacted by chronic understeer that prevented them from attacking the fast corners of the second sector. Kimi finished the first hour in eighth place, but the work done behind the scenes was massive.

Much of the engineering effort focused on optimizing the new power unit's energy recovery. Battery management, the heart of the 2026 regulations, required specific mappings that initially took time away from the pursuit of pure mechanical balance.

It seems that the Brackley team preferred to run at a lower engine speed also to avoid compromising reliability too much: a recurring rumour in the Melbourne paddock states that for the first few weekends, power unit management will be of fundamental importance for the Anglo/German team and to understand whether the problems that emerged in the Bahrain tests have been fully resolved, among other things often involving the unfortunate Antonelli himself.

FP2: Antonelli flies in the long run and grabs the second time

The change of pace in FP2 was evident from the first minutes. With a car finally precise in corner entry, Antonelli climbed the timesheets until he reached the top of the timesheets. second position in the dry lap, stopping the clock a few thousandths of a second from the McLaren di Oscar Piastri. But it is in the analysis of fuel loads that Mercedes has really impressed the competition.

Kimi's long run was very consistent: using the compound hard (C3), the driver from Bologna maintained a hammering pace, comparable to that of the more experienced Russell. Apart from a single slow lap (1:28.6) due to a yellow flag caused by a Cadillac stopped on the track, Antonelli strung together a sequence of laps between1:23.7 and1:24.1These data pose Mercedes as the most efficient car in terms of tyre wear management and energy management, a factor that in Melbourne often proves decisive for race strategy.

Kimi Antonelli's statements

At the end of the track activities, Antonelli analyzed the progress of the work done with extreme clarity, maintaining a cautious approach but aware of the potential available.

“The start of the day during the first free practice sessions proved to be quite complex, as our attention was almost entirely absorbed by perfecting the use of the battery – Kimi admitted. This priority took away precious time from fine-tuning the set-up, leaving us with a less-than-ideal car balance characterized by obvious understeer. Despite everything, we rolled up our sleeves during the break between sessions and managed to achieve a much more effective and profitable second practice session.”

I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend with great enthusiasm and hope to be able to fight for the top positions. We're all in such an intense learning curve, with every lap and every session adding new pieces to the puzzle, that what seems certain today could be proven wrong tomorrow. We'll continue to give it our all to squeeze every ounce of potential out of our car, aiming to find out where we stand in qualifying on Saturday and, more importantly, in Sunday's Grand Prix.