Mercedes Driver Is Better Than What He Performed
Kimi Antonelli’s rookie season has been tough on paper, but the numbers hide how quickly he is actually growing. The headlines have focused on missed Q3s and thin points, yet his speed trend tells a different story. Inside Mercedes, George Russell has been clear: the gap looks smaller than it really is. Russell says the stopwatch shows a rookie who is quicker than the results suggest. In a field this tight, tiny deficits turn into big grid drops, and that has shaped the narrative around Kimi unfairly.
Look at the reference laps. In Canada, Russell took pole and Antonelli started fourth, and the gap was around six tenths, big enough to matter, but not the gulf people imagine. In Belgium, the rookie fell in Q1 while Russell reached Q3, yet the pure lap-time difference was only about three tenths. On most tracks this year, three tenths can be the difference between P6 and P16 once traffic, wind, and track evolution kick in. So the result column shows pain, but the delta says he is within reach. That is why Russell keeps defending him: the raw pace is there more often than fans think.
Context matters, too, and Mercedes gave themselves extra homework. Across four rounds, the team tested a new suspension concept and later accepted that it was the wrong upgrade path. Mid-season reversals are expensive in confidence and setup learning, and they hit a rookie twice as hard. Every time the car’s mechanical platform changes, the feel on turn-in, brake release, and traction shifts with it. For a first-year driver still building reference points, that moving target slows adaptation and increases the chance of small errors that snowball into lost positions.
Antonelli has explained that since that suspension arrived, Canada aside, he has struggled to “drive the car” the way he wants. He tried to force his natural style on a platform that did not respond, and the lap time never came cleanly. That creates a loop: less confidence, more correction, and then more tyre temperature swings that punish the final sector. The encouraging sign is that his best peaks line up with the weekends when the car’s baseline was stable. When the team removed the troubled parts and returned to a known window, his sector times moved closer to Russell’s again.
Russell also points to the wider team transition. Big changes, Hamilton leaving, a rookie stepping in, and a car concept that is still being trimmed, bring gains and pains. He admits Mercedes hit a “bad patch” before the summer break and says the job now is to reset and execute the basics. That means a consistent foundation run plan, fewer wholesale setup swings between sessions, and cleaner qualifying prep. Give a rookie a stable car and a repeatable routine, and the graph usually bends upward fast.
There are also things Kimi is already doing well that do not show on the results sheet. His long run pace variance is narrowing, which hints at better tyre management and fuel corrected rhythm. His high-speed minimums have improved as confidence returns, and his lifting points are becoming more consistent from lap to lap. He is also learning how to manage out laps and create tyre temperature properly, a subtle craft that often decides Q2 margins. These are the bricks you lay before the podiums arrive.
The second half of the season will test the patience of everyone watching, but the blueprint is simple. Keep the car in a stable window, cut the experimental swings, and back the rookie with clear targets he can repeat. If Mercedes does that, Antonelli’s underlying pace should translate into regular Q3s and steady points. Russell’s defense is not PR; it reflects what the timing traces already say. Kimi Antonelli may not have shown it fully in results yet, but the driver he can be is closer than the standings make you think.
